


Alternating The Alternate World Again

by GachMoBrea



Series: Changing Things Up [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: AU, AU's AU, Alternate Universe, Barry Allen - Freeform, Betrayal, Bird Monsters, BirdBoy!Jax, Bond Light, Bonds, Bringing Stein into the fold, But it comes Back, Canon Divergence, CaptainCanary, Chronos!Mick, Continuation, Does Your Head Hurt Yet?, Drama, Duh Duh Duhn!, Episode Related, Fighting, Fights, Flashbacks, Gideon Re-Named, I'll come back to Tag more later., Interesting Tags, Jax finds out about Snart's Bond in the background., Jax joins the Bond, KendRay, Leaving Mick Behind, Loss of a Hand, Monster!Jax, Multi, My head hurts, Oopsie!, Pain, Per Degaton - Freeform, Pirates, Prisoner Swap, Psycho!Savage, Roller Coaster Emotions!, Sara finds out about Snart's Bond, Sara's in on it, Slightly Darker Mick, Soulmates, The Jacket, The professor 'knows', canon compliance, forced bonds, hostage, slight trauma, spoiler tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-14 08:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7163216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GachMoBrea/pseuds/GachMoBrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More Alternate Takes on an Alternate Universe. (It's still less complicated than it sounds.)<br/>Picking Up on Episode 5 and moving on from there for: TheValdezTARDIS.</p><p>In a nutshell-<br/>Follows the events of the DC Legends Episodes, with one alteration: Snart has an Infinite-Bond that can connect with anyone.<br/>*The difference from the core/first version of this Soulmate AU? They can feel it. (But they can also reject it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 5 + 6 = Confusion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheValdezTARDIS](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheValdezTARDIS/gifts).



> "Technically" the end of Episode 5 + Episode 6...  
> {I still dislike Episode 6 with a burning, passionate fury. But, hey, they made the thing and I have to use it.}
> 
> Okay, "TheValdezTARDIS" I wanted to surprise you with another Chapter, but I have NO idea if this is going in the right direction. It's warring against the other's plot line structure.

When Snart wakes again, he's blissfully alone. With a sigh of relief, he unhooks himself from the futuristic IV and turns to stand.  
"I don't recommend moving so soon, Mr. Snart," Gideon warns. "You have been through a trauma and should rest."  
"While I appreciate your mechanical overprotectiveness, Gideon," Snart drawls, hopping from the chair. "Listening to Raymond making movie references is more of a 'trauma' than what I went through with the Russians."  
"Mr. Palmer's perchance at referencing films seems to liven the usually disheartening circumstances," the AI defends Bright Eyes. Could an AI take sides?  
It doesn't stop Snart from going straight to his room to freshen up and get on a new set of clothes.

"Gideon," Snart asks in his room after he'd changed. "Do you have any information on a special light that lets people see Bond-Marks?"  
"Certainly, Mr. Snart," the AI chirps happily. "In 1986, there was a scientist in Prague who was developing such a light, before he was murdered and his research destroyed."  
The news loosens something tight in Snart's chest for a second, before the AI continues with, "Then some copies of his research were discovered in a hidden safe and a team of scientists in America were working on a prototype by the year 2020."  
Great. Just. Great.  
"Though, there work suffered a significant setback when an explosion occurred on the premises and destroyed most of their research and the almost completed prototype."  
Maye the universe was against it as much as Snart was. It would be nice if there was some force of nature fighting such a thing being created.  
"Again a team of scientists, this time from multiple countries, completed a working prototype in the year 2150. They were preparing to unveil the surnamed 'Bond Light' when they too suffered a set back."  
"Is there a working Bond Light, Gideon?" Snart asks, no longer interested in the history lesson.  
"Yes," the AI says, this time solemnly. "I am equipped with such a light in the MedBay. Though, it is strictly forbidden without the Bond-Mate's express permission."  
"Do you wish to reveal your Bond-Marks to the team, Mr. Snart?"  
Snart laughs, "Not at the moment, Gideon. Thanks."  
"Of course, Mr. Snart," the AI sounds pleased with itself. Maybe it-she?-was.

There's a knock on his door then.  
"Hey, Leonard," Sara calls out through the metal barrier. "You coming out? Or are you going to play the teenage girl and stay cooped up in your room?"  
The assassin had such a way with words.  
It was one of the things Snart liked about her.  
Snart pushes on the panel that opens the door. Sara stands on the other side, a bottle of vodka resting on one hip. He raises an eyebrow to it.  
"Mick stole it for you," the assassin explains, tossing the bottle to the criminal who catches it and places it in a drawer.  
"Let me guess," Snart smirks, turning his attention back to the blonde. "The whole team had a celebratory drink while I was passed out?"  
"Just be glad I swiped a bottle for you before your partner drank it all," Sara smiles back. She nods her head down the hall. "Come on, team meeting."

Snart follows Sara to the bridge where the rest of the 'Legends' are waiting. Jax's face breaks into a wide smile while Raymond, who still reeks of guilt, smiles in relief. Mick grunts at him in that appreciative way that really means he's extremely pleased while the rest seem just as happy with his presence.  
He didn't know they all 'cared' so much.  
"Mr. Snart," Rip greets him with a nod of his head. "It's good to see you up and around."  
Snart glances to the front window and notices the fluctuating colors that means they're in the Temporal Zone.  
"How long ago did we leave, 1986?" Snart asks, staring at the Captain.  
He can feel his Bond with Vostok fading away already. The Time Line change, along with his own desire to put the woman far from his mind, is helping ease the separation.  
"Oh, about, well," the Captain shrugs. "It's hard to put an exact time frame when there isn't really a time to frame it against, since there is no time in the Temporal Zone per se-"  
"About 8.246 hours," Mr. Perfect comes to the captain's failing answer. "Roughly, according to my watch."  
Rip points to the scientist, grateful for a more definitive answer.

"So," Kendra's voice lightly rises after a beat of silence. "What happened to you in that Gulag?"  
A few members of the team shoot the Birdie warning glances and Mick glares at her.  
Sara and Rip are eager to hear his answer.  
Snart's saved from answering when a crash throws him to the ground.  
"What was that?"  
"We have been struck with an explosive projectile."  
Oh, really? I couldn't tell.  
Snart rushes over to the nearest chair to strap himself in, the other members are either already strapped in or are following after him.  
"We're in the Temporal Zone. I don't understand. No one should be able to-"  
Rip's complaints are cut short by another hit.  
"You were saying?" Open your eyes, man! Someone obviously figured out how. 

"A scan of the vessel suggests that it is the bounty hunter, Chronos."  
"Aw, man, this guy has impeccable timing!"  
My thoughts exactly, Jax. 

"He appears to be following us."  
Once again: Oh, really?  
"Firing counter measures."  
There's an explosion on the side of the ship big and bright enough to be seen from Snart's seat.  
"Counter measures effective."  
That's good.  
"Have we lost him?"  
"Yes, but not his missile."  
Not so good.  
"Our aft shield is gravely compromised."  
"Initiating evasive maneuvers."  
Which means, turn the ship in such a way that it's as uncomfortable as possible.  
"Impact in 3..." Why did computers feel the need.  
"2..." To count down to death?  
"1"

The missile hits and the ship jerks them in their seats.  
They're still alive. But for how much longer?  
"Sir, we've just been knocked out of the Time Stream."  
"What does that mean?"  
"Means we're crash landing," Rip breathes, "in place," another breath, "and time."

 

Gideon manages to prevent another horrible crash landing, but just barely.  
"Maybe you should stay behind?" Jax says to Snart anxiously. He's still worried about the whole 'being captured and drugged' thing.  
"Yeah, not gonna happen," Snart pushes passed the kid. He ain't a flower.

They leave the ship and walk into a decimated city.  
"Gideon, camouflage the ship. This doesn't look the type of place you'd want to linger out in the open."  
It's more of the type of place where you're robbed and mugged.  
If everyone wasn't already dead.

"That looks a lot like a Palmer Tech building, but why does it have a "Smoak" logo on it?"  
Does it matter? The city's in ruins, Raymond.  
"Wait, this is Star City. I thought you said the Time Line was safe?"  
"Well, Star City was intact in 2016. This-This is 2046."  
A hooded guy comes out of nowhere and jumps atop a tall truck.  
"Don't move."  
Sara is relieved to see him, but the Hood doesn't share that feeling.  
"I said don't move."  
"I-It's me. It's Sara"  
The name clearly doesn't ring a bell to the Hood, because he's still glaring at them.  
"Hey, Oliver, look. I-I know it's been a long time, but, don't you remember that Rip Hunter recruited us to become Legends?"  
Oliver? Right, the infamous Oliver Queen of Star City.  
Well, that makes sense.  
"I never heard of any Legends." The Hood pulls an arrow to his bow and fires.

\---

The arrow goes flying through the group, everyone but Mick dodging it. Snart's partner is already aiming and shooting his weapon at the UnBonded Hood.  
The Hood ducks, notching another arrow that he shoots upwards. It's a grappling hook of some sort and the man is moving towards them.  
"Get back!" Stein says, and everyone takes cover. Jax rolls next to Snart.  
The Hood drops down where they were standing and runs near Snart. He moves to guard the kid, but the Hood just runs passed them to get at a better angle to start firing at them again.  
"This guy a friend of yours? I don't like him!"  
Mick's anger is understandable. Snart's not too keen on getting antique weapons lodged into his person. He swings over the chunk of building and tries to hit their enemy. Rip joins him with his futuristic pistol.  
"What are you doing?"  
Honestly, Sara, just because he's apparently your friend doesn't mean he gets to try to kill everybody.  
"It's called shooting back!"  
They hadn't even been in this Time Line long enough to mess anything up. Why was there already someone trying to kill them?  
The Hood falls back for another vantage point.  
"This can't be the Green Arrow."  
Kendra is scared and confused from her hiding place by Raymond's side. "Green Arrow" ah, yes, that was the do-gooder's hero name. He had turned up in Central once or twice. Maybe the hero decided to turn to the dark side?  
"That's not Oliver Queen."  
Et tu, Sara? Snart knows they're all a 'team' and everything, but maybe shouting out another man's identity loud enough for two known criminals to hear isn't the best choice. It's something Raymond would do.  
The Hood keeps moving, keeps firing at them.

"Sure dresses like it."  
Mick almost gets the Hood with his gun, but the man slides just out of reach. He doesn't miss a beat, immediately returning fire again once he makes cover.  
"Shoots arrows like him." They need to move. Get somewhere safe or get the upper hand on their attacker.  
"Well whoever he is, I don't plan on sticking around to get shish-kabobed by this dude."  
Jax's high pitched tone and fear propels Snart to his feet to shoot at the Hood again. The man rolls out of the way.  
"Kid's right, let's stay behind and kill him."  
Easier said than done. The Hood keeps shooting, keeps jumping and dodging and moving like an expert. How many arrows can he have in that quiver?  
"We need to return to the ship!"  
Yes, thank you, Rip. That was obvious, since no one had any better ideas.  
As per his usual cowardice, Rip runs for it first. Sara runs after him while Raymond and Kendra follow. Mick pushes Stein ahead of himself as they move. Jax looks to Snart and he motions with his head for the kid to go first. Without Stein, Jax has no way to defend himself.  
Snart takes up the rear and feels the heat of the explosion as they make their escape.

It's apparently enough for the Hood to send them scurrying away like rats, because he doesn't follow after them. They make it back to the Waverider without any injuries.

"Alright, Rip, tell us the truth."  
Because when does the man ever NOT lie? It's like a TV show where each episode is Rip revealing another secret or making up a new lie to tell his 'team.'  
Captain Double Talk sputters on about Time Lines and what you should and shouldn't do, but it's hard to understand what he really means.  
Mick's confusion is mixing with his own through their Bond and the swarming emotions from the others in the room aren't helping clear his head any faster. 

 

Rip gets Jax and Raymond to work on the ship, while he shows Mick and himself a chunk of metal they need to find a replacement for.  
"It's not money, it's not jewels, it's not a valuable artifact." Mick is not impressed with the job. "You're just lucky I'd steal anything right about now."  
It's true. Due to their inability to defend themselves from the Hood, his partner is itching to do something with his hands.  
"As I suspected."  
Rip's cocky behavior is going to get him beat up. Snart doesn't have the strength to fully enjoy a fight, so he decides to prevent it.  
"We'll get your gizmo," he says dismissively, putting on his second glove, "You just get this bucket flyin again."  
Because less time wasted in a Time Line that won't help them stop Savage is more time used to actually finish this fool's crusade.  
"I'm coming with." Sara joins the party, dressed in her Canary suit.  
"No! No, you are not. You're too emotionally connected to this city."  
Sara is ignoring Rip, putting on her coat. What happened between those two while he was away?  
"We've been over this!" Rip tries again.  
Sara turns her anger to him, "I'm over you."  
It appears there's someone who dislikes the captain as much as he does.  
"You've got us on a mission to change the Time Line for yourself and you won't even let us look at our futures? Now, I know this city. Better than anyone else and you're gonna need me out there." The assassin is definitely coming along. "So, either I'm coming with, or we can find out if the Time Masters are as good at teaching people to fight as the League of Assassins."  
Snart retracts his previous thoughts about a fight. He can muster enough strength to cheer the blonde on when she wipes the floor with the time traveler. He'll even make sure she doesn't kill him.  
But Rip backs down, quelled by the anger rolling off of Sara like one of Mick's flames. He moves his hand to open the door and the assassin walks off the ship.

"What happened between those two?" Snart asks his partner as the captain leaves.  
"Blondie and the Brit had words," Mick answers cryptically in a low growl as they follow after. That's unusual for his partner. The pyro was usually straight forward with Snart.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Snart frowns, tempted to reach out with their Bond to find and answer.  
"You're gonna have to ask her," his partner shrugs, stepping a little faster to get away from the conversation.  
Snart really needed to figure out what happened while he was away.  
If the team dynamics were switched up, he needed to know.

Mick takes his place beside Rip as they walk, Snart walking beside Sara.  
"If this is just a potential future, it doesn't matter if we kill anyone here, right?"  
Only his partner would think to ask. It's a valid question, though. What did it matter if shadows of things that might be died? The new Time Line would re-set as if it never happened.  
The sound of gun shots makes Snart turn a wary eye to where they came from. He keeps and eye out for unfriendlies as he maps out a return path in his head.  
"Well, to avoid the risk of a paradox, it's probably best to refrain from," Rip pauses as if he needs to be delicate, "killing anyone."  
That doesn't really answer the question, as usual, and it certainly won't stop his partner. "I'm not gonna promise anything."  
Hopefully the kid and Bright-Eyes can fix the ship before Mick sets the crumbling city even more ablaze than it already is.  
"My sister's apartment used to be over here."  
The building's utterly destroyed. How Sara can even tell where they are is a marvel in itself. Not that he likes the boys in blue, but their lack of presence is alarming.  
"Seem to remember something about your father being a Police Captain?"  
He read the files of his fellow 'Legends' early on; whatever Gideon had on them at least. Knowing who you work for is an important step in survival.  
"You're point?"  
Snart isn't as delicate as Rip, "Did one heck of a job."  
The city's destroyed and there's a vigilante turned killer on the loose. Need he say more?  
"My father, and everyone else, would never let this happen..." Snart's recent encounter with his faux father makes him tighten his hold on his gun. "Unless they were all dead."  
Sara's rising concern and growing depression makes Snart feel uncomfortable. He felt better when his own old man left this world, but not everyone had crap dads. He won't apologize for what he said, but he keeps his thoughts to himself for the next few blocks.

 

"Palmer Tech's just two blocks up this way. Or at least it used to be."  
Their guided tour is interrupted by an explosion and yelling from oncoming attackers.  
"Take cover in there!" Rip directs them to an abandoned bus. Sara practically drags Snart into the less-than-ideal hiding place.  
Chaos ensues around them as people come flooding out of nowhere to fight each other.  
"Like World War 3 out there." Snart pulls his arm out of the assassin's grip to move passed her and duck behind another seat. Mick crouches near him, buzzing with excitement.  
"It's beautiful!"  
The Hood shows up and starts shooting at both parties as they continue to shout and try to kill themselves. Sara stops worrying for him in favor of turning her attention to the fight.  
She wants to join the Hood. She's still wildly curious about what has happened to her city and who is pretending to be one of her hero friends. Snart can't say he wouldn't feel the same if this was Central and there was another Flash.  
"If you're thinking of joining in that party of chaos, feel free," Snart calls out to her, earning a blank look from the blonde. "Don't worry your pretty little head about me. I can take care of myself."  
He doesn't need her protection. If Sara wants to go kick butt and take names, she should.  
"We need to find another route." Rip remarks, ignoring Snart's offer to the assassin, but he doesn't attempt to move while there's so much going on outside.  
The Hood leaps away from an explosion, shooting two arrows and hitting his mark with both. One of the fighters is pushed up against the glass and it shatters in between Snart and Mick.  
"Oh!" Mick laughs, eyes dancing as he watches the two men beat against one another.  
Rip turns to them, hopefully worried someone was trying to get inside and not adding himself to the list of people who were acting overprotective of the criminal, and another body hits the hood of the bus.  
Speaking of hoods, the Arrow jumps back up to the higher spot on his perch and shoots off one more arrow before he gets hit himself. The Hood falls, losing his balance and landing on the ground below.

Sara is up and moving. Snart smirks while Rip tries to stop her.  
"Miss Lance, don't! SARA!"  
There's no use. The assassin is going to go no matter how much Rip shouts at her.  
"You two, don't move, we'll be right back!"  
Snart doesn't take orders. He gives them. You'd think Captain Idiot would have realized that by now.  
"Right!" Mick shouts as the man leaves, not even remotely thinking about listening either. "We're not gonna sit here, right? Imagine all the looting we can do in this chaos."  
His partner wants to put all that 'trauma' from Russia behind him and do some good ole fashioned thievery to make Snart feel better.  
If they're going to be stranded in a Time Line that might not even 'stick,' they might as well get some souvenirs. There were empty boxes to fill in the cargo bay after all.  
"How bout we stretch our legs to that bank we passed three block back?" Snart moves out of the bus. The fighting has died down, no sign of Sara, Rip, or the Hood. 

An engine revs and there are suddenly dirt bikes in their way and men surrounding them. Looks like they're going to be involved in the fight after all.  
"Drop your weapons! And hand over your wallets!" A twitchy Bond man orders them, gun moving back and forth from Mick to Snart.  
"Wait, are you actually trying to mug us?" The future has no respect for their past criminals. Was it because they were in the wrong City?  
"What is this? Amateur hour?"  
Mick's just as surprised as Snart at the man's lack of style when it comes to stealing. The whole city is falling apart and you take the time to stop two men for petty robbery?  
"You don't do what my man says, we're gonna crush you into the pavement like a couple a ants." Bond guy in a fur coat thinks he's the greatest thing since the gold rush.  
"Really?"  
Mick and him will have to shove him off his high horse.  
"What do you say we teach these fellas a lesson?" This might not be their Time Line, let alone their city, but no one disrespects them. No one.  
"Yeah."  
Snart keeps a cold glare directed at the leader while Twitchy takes his coat off. Mick laughs. It un-nerves the big bad leader and he moves to land a punch to Snart instead.  
Snart leans back, easily maneuvering away from the larger man as he loses his balance and take a few steps to regain his footing.  
The group boos Snart and cheer their leader on in order to boosts the man's ego.  
Snart could ice him, right there where he stands like it's nothing, but Mick's angry and pushes himself in front of him in order to land a hard right to the leader's head.  
But the man merely smiles back at them while his group laughs and Mick's ready to end their little dance.  
"On second thought." Mick takes his gun and blasts the leader away.  
That changes the tone to their would-be muggers.  
"Where'd you get that?"  
"Ebay."  
It's just like prison with this gang. The biggest, baddest guy gets to be the leader and call all the shots. They're all looking at Mick, waiting to be told what to do like sheep.  
"Now, your boss will not be needing this." Mick shoves one arm in and Twitchy helps him get the coat on.  
Snart thought they were done, but instead of showing these punks off and moving on their merry way, Mick is going to get sucked into being the new boss.  
"Well this has been fun, but I think it's time to leave." Snart is wary of joining forces with an unhinged gang of miscreants.  
"Leave? Why would we leave?" Great, Mick has already fitted the crown to his head. Shoulder's lowering, Snart realizes he will have to let his partner have some fun with this group first if he wants to get the man back to doing the job.  
Sorry, 'Legends', looks like this little pit stop is going to end up being a field trip.  
"Come on sweetheart!" Mick tells one of the female members. She's UnBonded and eager to impress their new boss.  
Snart resigns himself to babysitting the man for the time being. Maybe this group's home base will have something interesting to snatch while they wait for Rip to chase Sara throughout the city.  
Snart takes one of the motorbikes from a Broken-Bond gang member. He's not footing it after Mick.  
His partner guns the four-wheeler's engine and drives off. Hopefully the woman clinging to his back will give him directions to their home base.  
Snart doesn't feel like getting lost on top of everything else.

They drive to a building and the group doesn't waste time pumping up the music and bring out out the alcohol. Mick gets his hands on a chalice and has three full glasses before Snart can roll his eyes.  
There are too many people around. Their Bonds are swarming around him and beating his brain in time with the music. At least no one has tries to touch him.  
Then his partner's on top of a table handing out names like free money and Snart's had enough fun for one day.  
"Your highness, can I get a moment of your time, please?"  
"Sure!" Mick manages to get his feet back on the ground without falling. "Ah! Isn't the future great?"  
"We really should be getting back to Rip and Sara." Rip probably has himself hiding behind a wall while the assassin is fighting through another army of men.  
"Why?"  
Mick isn't going to make this easy for him.  
"Cause I'm not looking to put down roots," Snart spares the room a glance. "here."  
He already has roots back in Central City. This is just a bus stop to saving the future.  
"Why not? It's everything we've ever wanted." It's everything you've ever wanted, sure, but not Snart. "I've got a gang that does every thing I tell them to. I got a fur coat! I got a chalice. Speaking of."  
Twitchy fills the cup again. Even in his semi-drunken stupor, maybe Snart can make the man see reason.  
"What about stopping Savage?" What about saving Lisa and their City? Their real home, not this messed up version of a possible future that might not even really exist?  
"What about it? You're the one who said we're in this for the score, remember?" Right, the problem with tricking people is they tend to believe your lies.  
"We can live like kings here." On crumbly thrones of chaos.  
"No cops. No heroes." No challenge.  
"Just some fool in a green hoodie. It's Christmas every day!" The UnBonded girl from before cuddles up to Mick. "Ah, sweet."  
Mick pushes passed him and Snart heaves a sigh. This is going to be harder than he thought. As enjoyable as it was to be away from his new 'team' that's suddenly concerned for his well being, he's actually starting to prefer their worried glances.

 

The gang keeps partying, making out in dark corners and drinking. Mick strides through the room when he isn't cuddling with the UnBonded girl or drinking from his chalice. Once Mick gest drunk enough, Snart will be able to drag the man back to the ship... Snart finds a table off to the side where he can focus on blocking everyone. 

There's a crash, drawing his attention to another swarm of Bonds joining the party. Snart's gut tells him they aren't part of the gang. Their drawn weapons confirm it.  
"Who invited them?" Mick asks as the music cuts off.  
"Word on the street is Deathstroke is ticked off about something."  
"Deathstroke? What kind of name is that?"  
Not the kind of name you want to mess with if Snart's catching the fear and tension in the room correctly. An UnBonded man holding a mask walks through the newcomers.  
"Party's over. Everyone hit the streets. Hit everybody on 'em! I want Green Arrow dead by morning!"  
So Sara managed to help the Hood out even with Rip's incompetence slowing her down. At least they were safe then.  
"Listen, pal." Mick doesn't take too kindly to people in his new kingdom. "This is my gang. The only orders they take are from me."  
"Hmm, might be your gang, but it's my city." Mick's growling tone and attempt at intimidation doesn't even make the other man blink. "Green Arrow is running with a female assassin in white and a Brit in a brown coat. Kill 'em all."  
Snart's head moves at the mention of Rip and Sara. Correction, they were safe.  
Deathstroke tilts his head to challenge Mick to stop him from ordering around his new crew. When his partner doesn't make a move or comment, the new guy grins, poking at Mick before turning to leave.  
"Heard that man, let's GO!"  
Twitchy riles everyone up and out of the building. It's a relief on Snart's mind to have their Bonds finally vacate the building. 

Snart moves to stand next to his partner.  
"Looks like your new minions are about to go on a city-wide manhunt for Rip and Sara." They still have to get the chunk of tech they need to fix the ship on top of now having to rescue two members of their crew.  
"So what?"  
Mick is feeling defeated after having 'his people' choose the masked man over him.  
"They're gonna kill our friends." Technically, Sara is more of a potential Rogue, while Rip is only necessary to get back home.  
"I wouldn't really call them our friends," Mick growls, looking for another bottle of alcohol to fill his chalice again.  
"Is this the part where you tell me what happened while I was away?" Snart pushes the bottle his partner finds out of reach, glaring back to the man when he turns to look at him. "'They had words' covers a multitude of possibilities."  
"After we got back to the ship," Mick leans against the bar so he can focus on staring at Snart. "Rip wanted to leave immediately. I changed his mind about that. Then Haircut stood up and practically declared war on the Comis and the professor and kid joined in like they were some sort of club."  
"What does that have to do with Sara?" Snart frowns. He knew Rip couldn't be trusted. Figured the man would leave him behind at the drop of a hat if it meant salvaging his mission.  
"Blondie pulled Brit aside after he pretended to take the trio seriously," his partner grins. "They both thought I didn't know what they were talking about. But it was clear the little assassin was fighting for your rescue mission."  
So, Rip's an abandoning jerk who pretends to be team friendly while Sara acts like the deadly mother hen of the group.  
Interesting, but for some reason it doesn't surprise Snart at all. Regardless of Captain Two-Faced, they have to finish what they started out to do.  
Sara at least deserved a rescue.  
"It's time to go." Snart starts to stride out of the room, expecting his partner to follow after him like he always does.  
"You're not the boss of me," Mick grabs the bottle and fills his chalice.  
"Actually, I am." Snart turns back to Mick, reaches out to him through their Bond to get him to see things his way.  
Mick's eye twitches as he puts the bottle down.  
Snart makes it a point to rarely use his Bond to manipulate people, especially his partner. Mick's attitude was giving him no choice.  
To make things eaiser for them both Snart adds, "Let's make ourselves a deal."  
Mick doesn't voice any objections, so Snart continues. "You help me get to Rip and Sara. Once they're safe, we can have this conversation. Fair?"  
Mick turns his eyes away from the bottle in order to stare at him. Snart honestly wonders if he'd fight his own partner to save one person he doesn't hate and another he can't stand.  
His partner downs the alcohol before pushing away from the bar with a frustrated growl. He passes behind Snart and out the door.

 

They take the four-wheeler and bike back to where Sara was directing them earlier. Rip will probably be there trying to salvage this simple mission.  
Snart catches sight of some of Deathstroke's men sneaking in and he and Mick drive through the building until they find Sara, Rip and the Hood fighting one too many guys amidst all the tech toys.  
Mick and him shoot at the same time, blasting away two men before they're fully off their vehicles.  
"Gentlemen, you're timing is exemplary."  
Rip ducks as Snart's weapon shoots over him, followed by Mick's.  
Their enemies are down or gone, but Sara spikes in worry.  
"Where's Connor?"  
Snart doesn't know who she's talking about at first, but he figures it out when he can't sense the UnBonded Hood anywhere.  
They're all drawn to the abandoned bow lying on the floor.  
"He's been taken."

Sara kneels next to one of the dead men in the room.  
"These are Grant Wilson's men."  
"Mm, the guy with the half face and the body armor has it out for the kid in the hoodie." Mick keeps poking at the sleeve of his coat. He doesn't want to stay here. He wants to go back out and try to get his 'gang' back together.  
Rip tosses the bow away and it clangs loudly in large room.  
"Can I have a word?"  
Sara's going to want to go after the Hood and Rip is going to try to stop her. It didn't work out last time, but the captain is apparently going to try regardless.

 

"Now that we rescued them, let's have that chat."  
Snart has been thinking about all the possibilities of how that would go on the ride over there. He had a few ideas on what to do depending on whether or not he could get Mick to see reason.  
"You want to stay here."  
"Thought I made that pretty clear. What I'm less clear on is, why you don't."  
After all their years working together, Mick didn't really know him that well.  
"A city of thieves and criminals."  
Mick makes it sound like a good thing. Snart knows better.  
"Sounds like a lotta competition."  
"Then we wipe 'em out. What I did to that other guy, we do the same thing to Grant Wilson and anyone else stupid enough to get in our way."  
Mick's too wrapped up in 2046. Snart's not about to leave his partner behind in a Time Line that might not exist later. He heaves a sigh.  
"Besides, what will happen to us if the time man doesn't have our backs? If one of us gets captured again, he's likely to succeed in leaving us behind."  
You never leave one of your own behind. The Time Dope needed to learn that lesson.  
But he can't if Snart isn't around to teach it to him.  
"Take a look around, Snart. Livin the dream."

"You can't possibly be harboring the idea of staying in this Time Line," Rip's annoying voice breaks into their little chat as he and Sara return from their little pow-wow; box with whatever tech they need in Rip's hand.  
"We need to get this," Rip lifts the case. "and ourselves back to the Waverider."  
"Why?" Snart's partner growls. "Why should we do anything you say?"  
"Because I am your captain," the time traveler says like it means anything.  
"He's my captain," Mick nods his head to Snart. "You're just the funny man in a time ship who abandons his crew at the drop of a hat."  
Rip and Sara stiffen at what they think is news to Snart. The Time Dolt turns wary eyes to him and he smirks.  
"Was I really not worth the rescue?" Snart drawls, enjoying the guilt and regret radiating off the other man. Sara must be using her assassin training to hide her own emotions, because Snart can't get a good read on her.  
"Mr. Snart," Rip nervously shifts his weight from foot to foot as he avoids eye contact. "I," he pauses, shakes his head in self-disappointment. "I apologize for what I was willing to do back in 1986. It was nothing short of cowardice and I can only hope for a modicum of your forgiveness."  
It must be nice to have such a large vocabulary to grovel with.  
"You think saying your sorry will cut it, Brit?" Mick frowns. "We don't waste our time with people we know will betray us."  
"Mick," Snart turns to his partner as the others spike in worry. "Regardless of Rip's apparent need to be the town fool, I'm not about to risk the future in petty revenge."  
"You don't leave your own behind!" his partner barks at him. "That's your rule, Snart, not mine. Why aren't you more upset about this?"  
"Because getting all worked up doesn't solve anything," Snart pulls his gun out of the holster, but keeps it out of his partner's sight. "You need to cool down, Mick."  
"You might want to risk your life with those weirdos," Mick shakes his head as he turns his back to him. "But I'm staying here."  
What Snart's about to do next is really going to put a damper on their partnership.  
"Yeah, about that." Snart's arms whip out, using the Cold Gun to knock Mick unconscious. "Sleep tight, buddy."  
Rip and Sara are both alarmed at the sight of Mick on the ground.  
"Why'd you do that?" the assassin looks at the criminal bewildered.  
"We had a difference of opinion," Snart shrugs, re-holstering his weapon.  
"Ri-ight." Rip doesn't really care, he's just glad Snart wasn't planning on using the gun on him. Sara sends him another worried look before helping him hoist his partner onto the four-wheeler. 

 

When they get back to the ship, Rip and Sara lend a hand carrying Mick into a holding cell. Neither of them ask why they weren't putting him into his room.

 

With Mick safely tucked away, they go to the bridge where Stein greets them.  
"Where's Mr. Rory?" The professor is worried for his partner. See, Mick? Friends.  
"Sleeping it off." Snart's Bond is twisting in his gut and he's tired just thinking about confronting his partner later.  
Rip babbles on about their prize as he asks about the engine.  
"It's all good."  
Jax's confidence is all Snart needs to finish his journey through the bridge and to his room.

He doesn't make it there. Gideon tells him Mick has already woken up and demanding to see him. Snart heaves a deep breath, wishing the man had stayed out a few minutes more.  
He changes course and heads back to where he left his partner.

 

"Hello, Mick." Snart sighs the greeting, feeling the hatred aimed at him from his partner. The next few days will be 'fun.'  
"You son of a-" Mick's temper is already growing.  
"Just calm down." Snart tries tiredly.  
"You hit me!" Mick growls attacking the force field with open arms, not realizing it was there.  
"Wouldn't be the first time." And it probably won't be the last. "You weren't listening to reason and I had to get us out of there before Deathstoke's men got backup."  
"Then why am I in a cell?" his partner hits the back wall instead of the force field. "Why are you taking their side instead of mine? Me! Who stood up for you when the Brit wanted to leave you twisting in the wind?"  
"I'm not taking anyone's side, Mick," Snart glares. "I'm looking out for you. Just like I've always done."  
"You call lying to me looking out for me, Snart?" Mick punches the wall again.  
"Remember the Del Ray currency exchange? The black hawk armored car job? If I hadn't lied to you on those scores we'd both be in prison. Or dead."  
Because the hot-head couldn't think as clearly as Snart could. Didn't know when drop and run or roll with the punches. That's what their partnership was for. So Snart could know those things for him and Mick could just follow through with his plans.  
"I'm the brains. You're the muscle. That's how it's always been. And on occasion I've had to call some audibles." Little white lies that made it easier to get away with the score. He said what he needed to keep them safe. "You have a habit of getting in your own way, Mick."  
"You're right," his partner smiles at him and it isn't pleasant. "you've lied to me about jobs before."  
What was Mick thinking now?  
"But then again, you lied to be about this being a job." Dread sits like a lead weight in Snart's stomach. Why couldn't Mick be as 'thick' as people thought? "It's not about the score anymore for you."  
Anger, betrayal, confusion, more anger, betrayal again... Mick's emotions kept changing as he continued to talk.  
"You'd rather, save the world than be my partner. A real team player."  
"Because that's what it's gonna take to defeat Savage."  
The madman knew about the Infinite-Bond and Snart still owed him an icicle through the chest. He won't allow a Savage to destroy his world if he has the power to stop him. Even if he has to suffer through rolling emotions and oppressive Bonds.  
"Then what? More money? More power? A life of leisure and sin?"  
A life beyond the next job?  
"Don't you get it, Mick?" Snart waves his hand over the censor to open the door, Mick's eyes shoot over to it, but Snart grabs his attention back.  
"If we take out Savage, this immortal monster, can't you see what that gets us?"  
Mick isn't interested but he still says, "No, tell me."  
"We will be the two baddest men of all time."  
Someone to look up to and respect! Somebody important! Not the nothings our parents thought we were!  
"I don't want a ticket tape parade. You know what I want from this world."  
Snart's shoulders relax, defeated. He did know. Knew it from their first meeting and was reminded of it constantly. Felt it burning in his own heart as his partner got closer to him.  
"Yes." He whispers, feeling Mick close himself off to him at their Bond. "To see it burn."  
"You lay a hand on me again. You'll burn too."  
Mick gets out of the room, not even bothering to grab his fur coat on the way.  
Snart turns his head but doesn't follow.  
Mick's got it wrong. He's already burning.  
Right in the place where Mick's Bond is.

 

Sara has gone off to try to save the Hood. Stein's the one who rallies the troops and he's somehow managed to convince Rip to throw his lot in too.  
Mick decides to join the rescue mission, but only so he can shoot his gun or hit someone. He doesn't care about the assassin or anything else.  
Snart hopes he doesn't try to make a run for it in order to stay. He won't be able to stop him if he does.

Raymond and Kendra fly ahead and they all arrive in time to join in the battle that's already going on without them.  
"How'd you convince Rip to stay?"  
So the captain was going to abandon another crew member? It wasn't just the crooks he didn't care for? That man...  
"Actually, sending in the cavalry was his idea."  
Snart shoots at a man to his left. Raymond's trying to boost Sara's admiration for the man and Snart isn't going to waste time correcting him since the assassin already knows the truth.  
He shoots another guy to his left then rams his gun into a man at his right, before straightening to hit another further away.  
"Where's Mr. Queen?"  
There are two Hoods now, but the one fighting Deathstroke is Broken-Bonded so that must be Queen.  
"Connor!"  
Queen throws his bow to the other Hood fighting on the ground. Doesn't seem like a very good plan since he's still dancing with his attacker.  
Snart bashes another enemy in the face with his gun.  
Connor shoots a special arrow at Deathstroke and Queen finally gets the upper hand.  
Deathstroke's dead. What's left of the henchmen make a run for it. 

"Cowards! All!" Mick shouts at them as they run.  
His partner turns and heads back to the ship, glaring at Snart as he passes him.  
Snart lets him go. If his partner tries to stay, it might be easier to handle the complete loss of their Bond over the closed-off feeling and hatred Mick has over him.

"Oliver?"  
"It's good to see you again, Ray. Kendra." Queen's looking a little old and tired for hero work. "Thanks for the assist."  
"So, who's that?"  
"His name is Grant Wilson. Once upon a time, his father, Slade, tried to ruin my life."  
"That is not a nice family."  
Even Mr. Sunshine couldn't put a positive spin to Queen's speech.  
"That's good shooting, John."  
The UnBonded Hood shakes his head, slightly aggravated at the name. He returns to bow to the still panting hero.  
"It's Connor."  
"Either way. It's Green Arrow."  
Watching the two Hoods be all happy-go-lucky with each other makes Snart sick. He gives them all of 8 seconds before he turns to head for the ship.  
He needs to find out if Mick made it back or not.

 

"Alright Gideon, let's see if these repairs that Martin, Ray, and Jax made are up to scratch."  
"As far as I can tell, Miss Saunders did most of the work while the two gentlemen competed for her-"  
"Just get us out of here, please, Gideon."  
So that's why the kid was all angsty. Such a small ship, didn't those two know better than to start flirting with either of the two women on board?  
Wait, this is Raymond, of course they weren't thinking.  
Snart sits in his chair, pulling down the harness, and just waits.

Sara goes over to where Mick is still watching the city through the window.  
His partner might not feel anything towards the others, but the assassin might have what it takes to create some form of comraderie with the pyro.  
Snart wonders if he should be trying to make those of this time traveling 'team' he can stand honorary Rogues to make Mick feel better about staying. 

Snart isn't surprised when Mick sits in the open chair furthest away from him.  
"So, where to next, Captain?"  
"Well the beauty of this mission is that the real question is not 'where' but 'when.'"  
This entire crew was going to start spouting time puns before they finish saving the world.  
"In which case, I suggest we next hit Savage when he least expects it."

 

\---


	2. Episode 7 - Version 2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying REAL hard to stray away from the Original Version...

Three days. Snart gave it three days before Mick got over what he did to him.  
It's the average amount of time it took his partner to cool off.

But it was already day five and Mick hadn't even opened up their Bond again yet.  
Maybe it was because Rip had them floating in the Time Stream where his partner couldn't let out his frustrations by setting things aflame.  
It certainly wasn't helping.  
Mick shut down whenever Snart so much as walked into the same room as him, or vise versa, which was often considering the size of the ship.  
So the criminal decided to leave his partner alone in favor of 'spending time' with his other 'crew' members.

Snart realized he could stand Stein, mainly because they could both relate on history with Team Flash.  
Jax was good for re-hashing old jobs that went especially well. The kid's eyes lit up like he was there whenever they talked.  
He didn't even bother with Kendra. If Birdie's Bond was anything like Savage's he didn't want to re-live that experience if he could avoid it. And Snart could avoid almost anything when he put his mind to it.  
If he spent more than 4 minutes with Raymond he would have the overwhelming desire to strangle the man. He had timed it. Plus, the man was still reeking of guilt which added to his own natural annoying self.  
Rip brooded in the planning room or locked himself away in his personal quarters. It was refreshing to have someone avoiding Snart for a change.  
Snart did have the pleasure of discovering Sara's perchance at card games. He didn't even know games were a part of 'assassin training.'  
The blonde also didn't seem to mind his company.  
If Snart didn't know any better, he thought the little assassin actually 'liked' him. 

 

Day seven has Snart in the storage room playing cards with Sara again so they can break their 60th, or so, tie.  
Mick's there.  
Throwing knives.  
"I'm done!" his partner announces, ripping the weapon out of Snart's metal crate.  
"I was recruited for my unique ability to light things on fire. And now!" Mick's arms go wide. "I'm locked in the one place where I can't light things on fire." Which took some convincing and threats of taking his gun away. "A space ship!"  
"You can't honestly still be sore about leaving 2046," Snart drawls, putting down his card. Sara reaches to pick up from the deck, head bowed so you can't see her eyes trained on the pyromaniac.  
Snart sees it anyway.  
Mick growls, walking over Snart's legs and narrowly missing stepping on him in his hurry to leave.  
"Where are you going?" Snart asks him, because even though his partner's still boiling mad at him, Snart's still the only one who can talk him down from doing something reckless.  
"Why?" Mick turns his anger full force to Snart. "You gonna clock me in the head if I don't listen again?"  
The words are uncalled for and incredibly accurate at the same time. Snart lets his partner leave without another comment.  
It's his turn in the game.  
"Everything okay with you two?" Sara asks, turning her eyes away when Snart looks at her. The assassin's genuinely worried and perhaps feeling a little guilty about her part? She only helped carry the man. There's no reason for her to feel bad about what Snart did to his partner.  
"Yeah, don't worry about him," Snart decides to try dissuading her fears, even though he lacks the confidence to sound convincing. "Everything's peachy."  
Sara wins that hand. Snart blames his partner for distracting him.

 

It turns out, when Rip said, "I suggest we next hit Savage when he least expects it."  
What he meant was, "I have no idea where my enemy is, but I'm really good at pretending."  
Captain Constantly-Inconsistent brings the whole crew to the bridge because they need something from another Time Idiot's ship in order to go after Savage.  
The problem with that: This female Time Traveler is apparently sending a distress signal from said ship.  
And it's obviously a trap.  
Stein gets excited over 'deep space' travel and other such science-based details but the kid is feeling exactly what Snart is. "Why should we be acting as road side assistance for the people who's chasing us?"  
"Doesn't it seem suspicious? This distress call just happened to reach us?"  
Kendra isn't sold on being space repairmen either, "How do we know it's not a trap?"  
Of course it's a trap. Anyone with half a brain should know it's a trap.  
Which is why the Space Cadet still wants to go for it.  
"We don't but what we do know is that Savage's trail has run cold and unless Gideon can upload the data from the Akeron's computer-"  
"I'm in." Mick interrupts Rip's 'perfectly good' reason to risk all their lives.  
Wait, what?  
"You are?" Snart's surprised. Being cooped up in a tin can apparently has his partner bored and itching to do anything. Even walking headlong into an obvious trap.  
"The sooner we end Savage, the sooner I get back to where I belong."  
Or maybe he just wants to get away from Snart.  
"Prison?" Stein mocks. Bad timing. The old man doesn't know what's going on in the pyro's head.  
These days, Snart doesn't either.  
"Any prison on earth's better than this one, professor." Thankfully, the remark doesn't set off his partner's temper.  
That's all Rip needs. Their 'leader' claps his hands and orders the AI to get ready to go to the source of the distress call. Everyone else moves to their seats to get ready for the move and Snart can feel the kid's lack of enthusiasm that mirrors his own.  
Snart sits next to an empty chair as they go 'full throttle' to the next fiasco.

 

The Waverider slows, coming to a space-floating stop in front of another Time Ship. The harnesses release and everyone moves to look out the front window to the large object outside. Rip invites the Firestorm duo to join the boarding party and the professor is all too eager to go.  
"Let's get this thing started."  
When Mick moves to go to the Jump Ship, Snart intercepts him.  
"Hey," He tries for a casual tone. "Should I come along? Watch your back?"  
"Like you did in 2046?" Mick growls, purposely pushing passed him.  
Only Sara notices the unfriendly 'nudge' and he shakes his head minutely to her questioning look. The assassin was starting to become over-protective.

Rip leaves the ship in Raymond's hands. He then turns to Kendra and says he leaves Mr. Perfect in hers, and Snart sighs inwardly.  
A budding romance trapped inside a tin can through time and space.  
How awful.

When Mr. Perfect and Birdie start flirting with each other, Snart thinks he might actually throw up.  
"Uoghf," He averts his eyes from the glee radiating off of Raymond. "Mick had it wrong. This ship isn't a prison. It's a torture chamber."  
"Mick's problem isn't with the ship."  
Snart looks up at her, wondering what sort of conversations the assassin and his partner might have had as he agrees, "It's with me."  
"You did knock him out and force him to leave 2046 Star City." Sara nods. "Which is like," The assassin searches for the right word. "Disneyland for felons."  
"He'll get over it." Eventually. Probably after setting a few towns or villages on fire, depending on their Time Line. "Mick runs hot, he always has. Once he calms down, everything will be back to normal."  
"Yeah, I bet that one sounded more convincing in your head."  
Snart levels Sara with a glare.  
The burning sensation where Mick's Bond is intensifies as if agreeing with the woman sitting in front of him.

 

"I'd like to speak to acting Captain, Raymond Palmer."  
The new voice brings everyone to the table computer where the face of an angry looking newcomer is waiting for them.  
"Who are you?" Raymond asks the stranger.  
"I'm the man holding your crew hostage."  
Mick.  
Snart frowns. He told Rip it was a trap. When were they going to listen to him?  
After a failed attempt to intimidate the stranger, Rip's face gets an up-close-and-personal look at the screen. Their enemy gives them his offer then ends it with, "You've got ten seconds to decide."  
"Or else what? If you want the Waverider for yourself, there's no way you'll fire on us." Nice one, Bright Eyes, but-  
"Right now, I've got my sights set on your captain's head."  
"Wa-wa-wa-wait, okay?" Raymond raises his hands, trying to calm the other man. "Just, give me a chance to negotiate."  
"10."  
This guy is impatient.  
"9."  
"Maybe he's bluffing." Raymond hopes.  
"8."  
"Doesn't feel like it." They need Rip alive to navigate the Waverider. They might have to buckle under this one.  
"7."  
"You don't know Palmer." Rip opens his mouth. "And how he survived the Emperiax onslaught."  
An alarm goes off.  
Rip's activated some sort of fail safe to force their hands. Gideon's vague about the details.  
"What does that mean in English?" Snart demands to know.  
"Strap yourselves in. We are on the move and preparing to fire."  
Snart slides back to his seat and pulls down his harness, the other doing the same.

 

Time Pirates. Captain Rush-In-Head-First has gotten them entangled with Time Pirates. And Gideon is now currently firing on them.  
"What are you doing Gideon?" Snart was beginning to wonder if the disembodied voice was actually 'Intelligent.'  
"Just a warning shot to let them know we mean business." The AI sounds pleased at itself. Maybe it was more of an 'Artificial Live' or 'Artificial Being'?  
"My partner's on that ship!" If Mick dies, Snart will never make amends. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Their Bond burns harsher with his anger. If only Artificial Beings had Bonds too.  
Gideon seems to understand. The AB finally stops shooting and pulls back and away from the enemy ship. Snart breathes a sigh of relief, but it only lasts a second before the pirates hit them and, "There's a hull breach in the aft potion of the ship."  
"And the pirates have taken out the telemetry controls."  
Whatever that means.  
Sparks and smoke flying out of the tin can's walls and ceiling was an obvious enough 'bad sign' to Snart.  
"Gideon, switch to manual." Raymond gets out of his harness, determination moving him to sit in the Captain's chair. Kendra isn't too happy that the scientist has found a sudden gusto for space battles.  
Sara gets out of her chair too. She's going to go fix the damaged hull and Snart's not about to let her go alone.  
Snart tells Kendra to, "Make sure Picard here doesn't get us all killed."  
"Actually, I'm more like Sulu right now!" The scientist gleefully shouts out. "Or Han Solo!"  
It was well over four minutes so Snart congratulated himself on not envisioning all the ways to kill the man with only his bare hands.

 

Snart grabs his Cold Gun. He and Sara search for the hole after Gideon directed them to the right room.  
"Here." Snart feels the chill of space and sees what looks like smoke billowing in and out of the hole. He charges the gun and fires, making an icy patch as best he can.  
It's not going to be enough. He can't keep this up forever.  
"You might as well get outta here, Sara," he tells her over his shoulder. He has to focus on keeping the blast on the hole.  
"How long can you keep that up for?" the Assassin ignores the order. She's guarding her feelings again and Snart's concentrating too much on what he's doing to figure it out.  
"Not long. Gonna run out of charge." The Cold Gun stops at that exact second.  
Timing.  
"Be advised, the breach is only partially contained." Gideon tells them as they're trapped in the room.  
"Guess we know the bulkhead doors are working." Maybe the AB wanted Snart to die. Maybe he had done something to insult the machine some how. But why take it out on Sara as well?  
"Too bad we're on the wrong side of them." 

"Why did you stay?" Snart levels the Blonde with a glare. "There was no need for you to have been in there. I told you to go!"  
"You're not the boss of me, Leonard," Sara glares back. "I make my own choices, so you best get over it and move on."  
"You vigilantes and your pointless sacrifice," he growls at her, turning away to check his gun. The thing's dead. It'll take too long for it to re-charge to be of any use.

Raymond and Kendra come running to the other side of the door.  
"Thanks for stopping by." Sara greets when they arrive.  
"We're gonna get you outta here, just," Raymond pauses. "hang tight."  
"Is there another option?" Sara's sarcasm is a clear defensive measure to her growing fear of freezing to death. She should have left when he told her to.  
Snart still feels a pang of protectiveness toward the assassin.  
"Don't mean to rush you, Raymond," LIE. Hurry it up, Mr. Perfect. "But it's getting cold in here. Normally, I wouldn't mind but-"  
"Can't you just open the doors, Gideon?" Kendra stops Snart from continuing. She's either just as anxious to get them out or hates to hear Snart's snarks.  
"The bulkhead is designed to remained shut until the breach is sealed."  
That's a design flaw. How can you fix something in a room you can't get into?

"Well that's not happening from in here!" Snart glares at his, now useless, gun. There are also no tools in the room to make any sort of attempt to fix the hole either.  
"How much time until-" Kendra starts to ask, but stops herself.  
Sara helpfully does it for her: "We're dead?"  
The two budding lovers look through the glass worriedly and Snart sighs.  
'Captain Cold freezes to death.'  
Ha. Ha. Ha.

 

Raymond and Kendra run off to try and figure something out while Snart and Sara take a seat. The room is slowly getting colder and Snart wishes he had his gloves.  
"I didn't want to leave you behind again," Sara's quiet voice breaks the silence.  
Snart turns a raised eyebrow to the assassin.  
"That's why I didn't leave," the Blonde rolls her eyes. "I figured one possible near-death situation was good enough for one person."  
"But you've died before," Snart remarks, but not unkindly. The assassin makes a face but nods.  
"What's it like? Dying?" He might as well prepare himself. "I imagine you've got a unique perspective."  
"It's funny," Sara shakes her head. "You'd expect it to be terrifying, just, panic and fear."  
There are a lot of things people 'expect' but never happen. Snart supposes this particular event made that a good thing. He was still curious.  
"What'chu feel?"  
"I guess lonely." Snart wasn't expecting that answer. "Yeah. Like, everybody I loved was a million miles away."  
Lisa was miles or years away. Mick was burning him alive inside.  
Snart might know what dying felt like after all.  
"I mean, I don't like you, but at least I'm not dying alone."  
That's what she says, but Snart can feel differently. As the room grew colder, the assassin's walls began to shrink and her emmotions flooded over to the criminal.  
"You like me just fine, Assassin," he drawls, eyes catching her smirk she tries to hide it by ducking her head.  
If they really were dying, and since Sara already shared, Snart figures he can return the favor.  
"Closest I ever came to dying was, uh," The memories come flooding to Snart's slowly freezing brain. "the day I met Mick."  
"How does that not surprise me?" Sara, like everybody else had, has the wrong idea.  
"It wasn't like that." He nudges her when she snorts in disbelief. "It was my first day in Juvie." Tall walls, barbed wire, cold bars. "I was fourteen and smallest kid in there by far. Some of the older kids wanted to make sure I knew it." Snart takes a breath, memories of angry faces and swarming Bonds trying to choke him. "So, they jumped me. I fought back, but, one of them had a shiv." Nothing more than a sharpened toothbrush end, but deadly enough to draw blood. "I figured that was it." The weapon was going towards him, right to his neck where it would kill him. "Until Mick stepped in," A strong arm grabbing a skinnier one. Fiery determination and temper to match glaring down Snart's attackers. "and they didn't mess with me after that."  
Snart remembers the first time Mick took his hand, pulled him to his feet and told him to brush the dirt off. He let his Infinite-Bond reach out to the older teen's Shattered one. His partner was like his shadow after that. "He's been standing up for me ever since."  
"Let's just hope he's standing up for Rip and Jax right now."  
"Who else is going to take on those pirates?" Mick wants to get back home. Will probably do anything to get back to their Time Line.  
Snart just hopes that when his partner's done beating the crap out of the pirates, he'll have vented enough frustration for them to move passed their personal situation.

Sara shakes in a violent shiver and Snart leans forward enough to remove his jacket.  
"What are you doing?" Sara asks, brow furrowed as Snart offers her the coat.  
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Snart asks her sarcastically, pushing the coat in her face. "Hurry up and put it on before you waste the warmth I gave it."  
The assassin wastes three seconds to decide to give in, snatching the coat and sliding her arms through quickly.  
Her hand touches Snart's and even though it's numb, he can still feel the spark of her Bond with his.  
"Thanks." She mumbles, brows still scrunching as she looks at him strangely.  
Please don't ask. Please don't ask. Please-  
"Leonard," Sara says slowly, expression still strange. "What kind of Bond do you have?"  
Snart heaves a heavy sigh. To spill or not to spill?  
That's the million dollar question.  
Only one other person, besides Lisa, knew about Snart's Infinite-Bond and that certain Speedster was dependable enough to keep the secret.  
"Hey," Sara nudges him with her shoulder as best she could, her own body vibrating with the cold, "You gonna answer me or what?"  
"What does my Bond feel like, to you?" Snart answers with a question. Hoping he can divert the impromptu interrogation.  
"You're not getting out of this, Leonard Snart," Sara frowns.  
Oh, no. She used his last name too.  
"You're Bond is all over the place and now I'm asking you what kind you have," she adjusts stiffly in her spot to look at him fully. "I'm Broken, if you can't tell."  
"I can tell," he drawls. Snart's mind replays her words from the rooftop where this all began. Curiosity and a desperate desire to move the conversation away from himself has him ask, "Is your Bond-Mate dead?"  
"If I tell you, will you answer my question?" Sara gives him a pointed look and now Snart has a final decision to make.  
What was he thinking? He's a liar.  
"Deal," he smirks.  
"I met my Bond-Mate while training for the League of Assassins," Sara begins, eyes turning downwards as she continues. "She saved me, in more ways than one. She was one of the most important people in my life."  
The usually strong assassin slumps a little next to him. Snart thinks for a minute she isn't going to finish, then her voice speaks out a little quieter as she says, "Then I died and our Bond was Broken."  
"Let me guess," Snart tries to lighten up the dark feeling coming from the Blonde. "you died but somehow magically came back but didn't Re-Bond with her to protect her or something as nauseatingly honorable?"  
"No." Sara deadpans.  
"No?" he snorts.  
"There's nothing honorable about leaving your Bond-Mate," Sara continues in a stronger voice as her anger grows.  
"I'll have to defer to you on that," he drawls, moving his body to prevent his muscles from locking up.  
"I met up with her again before joining Rip and this crew," the assassin's arm snatches Snart at the collar so that he's forced to look at her. "We couldn't 'Re-Bond' as you put it. We tried, boy did we try, but there was nothing there! Nothing!"  
Sara's chest heaves as she continues to glare at Snart. Agony, desperation, despair, and a cesspool of other emotions swirl in her eyes and Snart decides to actually be a man of his word.

Slowly, gently, he covers her hands with his own.  
The Infinite-Bond connects and it sends a warm sensation throughout his body.  
Sara gasps as she pulls her hands back.  
"What was that?" the Blonde demands. When Snart doesn't immediately answer, she raises her voice and demands more firmly, "What. Was. That."  
"My Bond," Snart answers simply.  
"But, we're not," Sara blinks. "I'm not your-Is it because?"  
Apparently, when it comes to Bonds, Snart is able to reduce the assassin to confused sputtering.  
"I have an Infinite-Bond," he explains as he watches Sara for her reaction. "I can Bond with literally anyone."  
"Even the already Bonded?" the assassin immediately asks.  
"Even the already Bonded," he confirms.

"What a load of crap."

Snart blinks. "Excuse me?"  
"You're telling me that you, Leonard Snart the infamous criminal, have an Infinite-Bond?" Sara glares at him. "Are you sure the Time Jumps are messing with you or something?"  
"So, I'm 'infamous' now am I?" Snart drawls with a smirk.  
Sara hits him in the shoulder, "I'm serious!"  
"So am I," he takes her hands again and their Bonds connect once more, sending with it the pleasant warm sensation that is much preferable to the freezing-to-death one. Sara's eyes grow comically large for two solid seconds, before she clicks into 'assassin mode' and masks everything over.  
"I didn't choose this," Snart tells her as they keep steady eye contact. "And I definitely don't want the others to find out."  
"Why?" the blonde asks, hands stiff in his hold.  
"Can you imagine how more obnoxiously peppy Raymond would get if he knew?" It's an honest question, but he doesn't really expect her to answer. "This is personal and you now make the third person in the world, or whatever," stupid space time travel, "to know about it."  
The stiffness eases slightly and Snart can tell by what little he can pick up in his frozen chunk of a brain that he's getting through to the woman.  
He still adds a sincere, "Please, Sara. I'm asking you to keep this to yourself."  
Sara stares at him while their Bond thrums through their held hands. Then she smirks at him while she rolls her eyes, "Fine."

 

They keep holding hands. Even after the Bond stops sending warm sensations through them, they keep the contact.  
The next time they talk, it's Snart who speaks first.  
"Nothing quite like dying to make you think about all the mistakes, all the wrong choices." Snart's mind is currently making a list.  
"Is this Leonard Snart coming to God in his final moment?" Sara scoffs.  
Snart smiles ruefully.  
"Hardly." He rubs their hands together in an attempt to keep the blood flowing. "Just wish I could take a few things back. Should've left Mick in future Star City."  
It wasn't about what was best for his partner. It was what HE wanted for himself.  
Because he didn't want to be alone on this ship with people he didn't trust.  
Because he needed Mick's Bond to remind him of home and the reason he was there to begin with.  
Where was that Bond now though?  
"Why didn't you?"  
Snart's train of thought screeches to a stop as his memory clears to something a little darker about his partner. Another reason he keeps Mick at his side.  
"Without me to keep him in check," Snart sighs. "Mick can be a scary guy."  
"Agreed." Figures the assassin caught on to that too. "Hate to break it to you, but, even if we make it outta here alive you're still gonna have a problem on your hands." A problem worth solving. Mick was still his partner. "And I've seen enough to know, that Mick's in a dark place. He's not coming back."  
Sara suddenly grabs hold of his arm, inching closer to his body to share what little of their collective warmth they had left.  
"I've got your back though, if you need it."  
"Thanks, Sara."

 

"Mr. Palmer has successfully sealed the breach." Gideon informs them, opening the bulkhead doors.  
Snart rises to his feet stiffly, pulling Sara with him as he goes. The assassin groans against the pain and they stumble out of the room to the warmer hallway.  
"Let's never do that again." Sara tries for humor.  
They can hear a distraught voice as they move and they try to run as fast as they can considering the blood still hasn't defrosted in their veins.  
"I thought you were dead." Kendra has Raymond's head in her hands, fear being flooded by relief as she holds him.  
"I think I was there, for a second." Raymond tells her. What was with this crew and dying? It's not a fun pass time. "Thank you."  
Snart decides to stop a possible kissing session, the rest of the team was still captured after all, "You kids need a moment?"  
They both turn their heads to him with shock, relief, and a few other 'uplifting' emotions. Sara joins them, still rubbing her arms. And wearing his jacket.  
"You okay?"  
"Mr. Palmer nearly died!" Honestly, it sounded as if the AB was almost HAPPY at the thought. What was wrong with that program?  
"Welcome to the club." Snart tells the scientist. "Gideon! What's happening on the Akeron?"  
"Funny you should ask, I just received a message from Mr. Rory. It seems he escaped capture and is now on his way to the Waverider."  
Good ole Mick.  
"Told ya." Snart says proudly. Worry easing off his chest. "Those pirates picked the wrong guy to mess with."

"Is that Snart's jacket?" Kendra asks Sara, face amused.  
"We better go." Snart helps Bright Eyes to his feet so that the Blonde doesn't have to answer. 

 

They all walk to greet Snart's partner.  
"Since when does Rory even know how to fly the Jump Ship?"  
"How did he even find us?"  
Those are both good questions, which Gideon answers: "Actually, I did the flying. He received quite the beating at the hands of the pirates."  
Snart wonders how many pirates Mick beat unconscious. He knows his partner can give as good as he got, if not more so.  
But if Mick got into a fight, why didn't he bring the rest of the crew with him on the Jump Ship? How many of these Time Pirates were there?  
There's a mechanical noise to their right and Gideon tells them, "That's him now."  
Snart recognizes Mick's Bond, but he's not alone.  
There are 10 more Bonds beyond that door.  
The door opens and Mick walks through. His partner's face is slightly battered, but not nearly as bad as Snart's seen him get.  
"You okay, Mick?" Snart asks, because his partner's face is unnaturally neutral.  
Mick turns to shout, "Boys! Ship's all yours."  
Ten intruders board the ship, guns drawn and pointed at the four of them.  
Anger and betrayal flow through the people of Snart's side of the hall.  
Raymond curses at Mick, the two's friendship taking an especially harsh hit.  
Mick seems resigned to his choice and Snart knows part of it is his fault.

"What're you doing, Mick?" What's your plan in all this?  
"Getting us home." Mick saying 'us' not 'me' eases something in Snart's chest. They're still partners after all. "Are you in?"  
Snart steps forward, pulling his gun that's charged once more.  
"Yeah." He turns to look at the others. "Time to choose a side I guess."  
Kendra's worried, and Raymond's confused. Sara's looks angry but he can sense her trust in him and he knows she's waiting for some sort of signal.  
Snart turns back to Mick. His partner is practically begging him with his eyes to choose to betray this new team and go with him and the pirates.

He was never one for last ditch efforts but, for his partner, Snart's willing to make an exception.  
Walking confidently, the criminal steps in front of Mick and looks him in the eye.  
"Are you really ready to throw your lot in with some pathetic pirates?"  
One of said pirates moves to hit Snart, but Mick blocks him with his arm.  
"Are you ready to risk your life for a couple of jokers who you don't even know?"  
"Mick," Snart tries again, reaching out to the man with his Bond while he searches the man's eyes. "Don't do this. You're part of this crew."  
"Not anymore," the pyro growls. Their Bond completely dying with his words.  
Fine.  
If that's how you want it.

 

"Then I guess I have no choice." Snart lifts the Cold Gun and fires, hitting one of the pirates square in the chest and throwing him into the arms of two of his friends.  
Mick curses at him and shoots back with his Heat Gun, but Snart dodges to the side as the others take cover down the hall. "Get them!"  
The pirates run passed Snart as his partner rushes at him. Snart slams his gun against Mick sending both weapons to the ground in loud clangs that ring in his head as he dodges a fist.  
"After all these years," Mick lands a blow on Snart's jaw that sends him a few steps back. "We've known each other since Juvie!"  
Snart ducks the next hit and lands two of his own to his partner's chest.  
"Exactly!" Snart bites back, dodging again and getting his own hit to his partner's jaw. "We've worked together for years and you sell us out to pirates?"  
"They were gonna take us home!" Mick roars. He swipes at Snart with one fist, when he ducks the pyro follows after with a kick to Snart's chest.  
Snart falls back but he doesn't fall down. He swings hard at Mick with a his right fist, but this time his partner purposely takes it so he can land a more vicious punch directly to Snart's head.  
The world tilts as it hazes around the edges. He almost forgot how hard his partner could hit when he got really tee'd off.  
"Don't worry, Snart," Mick growls as he grabs up Snart's shirt. "I'm not gonna kill you. I want you to live long enough to realize what a stupid decision you've made picking this new team over me."  
His partner head butts him, then throws him against the wall.  
The world goes dark before he hits the ground.

 

"So what's the plan, Lenny?" The memory of Lisa's voice rings in his head. "You're going to block out anyone who tries to get close to you?"  
"Something like that," he had drawled back.  
"What's the point?" she had rolled her eyes. "What are you so afraid of?"  
"Being betrayed." Snart answered back.

The world comes back into focus as Snart forces his eyes open and his head to clear. He can feel his Bond with Sara. She's fighting someone, but not here.  
"Gideon," he has to clear his voice to strengthen it. "Where is Sara?"  
"Miss Lance is currently fighting with Mr. Rory in the engine room where he is attempting to access the Time Drive." the AB informs him.  
The assassin has gone after his partner.  
Snart breaks into a run.

 

He feels a pain in his arm at the same time he hears Sara shout out. Mick must've hit her with his gun and that makes Snart's anger rise.  
He runs into the room and sees his partner is about to get to the blonde.  
He shouts, "Mick!" to get the man to turn and shoots his partner with the Cold Gun, knocking him to the ground. Mick's weapon is out of reach.  
Snart stands there, gun trained on his partner, his friend, his protector while his chest heaves with indecision and anger. Sara steps up next to him and places a calming hand on his shoulder.

"Waverider, this is Captain Hunter. We've regained control of the Akeron. What's your status?" Rip's voice calls into the room.  
Mick looks up to him, anger still boiling, "What're ya gonna do, Snart?

 

Raymond and Sara take Mick to the brig. Snart hunts down Jax.  
The kid's loitering around the ship with nothing to do and the old man's standing just as uselessly at his side.  
"What happened?" he barks before either of them can open their mouth for a greeting.  
"I'm glad you're okay too," Stein offers haughtily.  
"I asked what happened," Snart glares at the professor. "And I wasn't talking to you, Silver Top."  
"Hey, man, take it easy," Jax raises his hands and steps in front of his Bond-Mate.  
"How did Mick end up striking deals with Time Pirates?" Snart manages to keep the heat out of his voice, but just barely. "Weren't you all stuck together?"  
"After Rip told him he wasn't supposed to be part of the team," the kid shrugs. "He said he was gonna make a deal with 'em."  
"Rip said what?" he demands, even though he heard the kid loud and clear.  
"It appears, Mr. Rory was not originally on the preferred docket for this mission," Stein answers. "He was instead part of a two-for-one deal."  
"Rip wanted you but said he needed Rory to get you," Jax reiterates. "I'm sorry, man."  
"One of these days," Snart drawls, pulling himself to his full height. "You two might have to hold me back from killing that moron."

Snart goes to his room.  
The second the door closes, he slumps in his bed.  
Rip's on the other ship saying his goodbyes; there's more than enough time to figure this out...  
Mick betrayed them.  
He betrayed Snart.  
The pyro wasn't even suppose to be here and he sold them out to the first group of miscreants who promised to take him home.  
It actually is all his fault.  
There's no way he can trust Mick now. Especially since their Bond is practically non-existent. Their friendship is in ruins and what Snart has to do next will only tarnish it further.  
But that's why he's the boss.  
Boss's had to make the tough decisions.  
Even if it kills them a little inside.

 

Rip calls the rest of the team together to his study.  
They all file in quietly and stand around the table in tense silence.  
"Okay, I'll say it." Raymond speaks first. "Why don't we just drop him off back in 2016?"  
"Because my sister lives in 2016." At Mick's current mental state, he's likely to go after her. Snart turns to Sara, "And your sister." There's no reason for him not to. He turns to Stein. "And your wife."  
"So what exactly are we talkin about here?" Jax pipes up before Snart can continue. "Leaving Rory in the brig until we take down Savage?"  
"Ah, no, no, no." Rip is completely against any thought of Mick staying on the ship. "The brig is unsuitable for long term incarceration."  
The Waverider had literally turned into a prison for Mick.  
"Giving him free run of the ship is not an option."  
They were all dancing around the only option they really had. Snart can't listen to it anymore so he tells them, "I'll handle it."  
"By 'handling it' you mean murder." Stein's mightier-than-thou tone is pushing Snart to his limits.  
"I said, I'll handle it." Snart glares at the man. He doesn't need their judgmental stares. They're pitying looks. They're worry or fear or friendship.  
He just needs to use them to stop the immortal from destroying the world so he can go back home and forget this ever happened.

They all go silent and Snart strides out of the room.

 

Snart has Gideon fill the room with gas to knock his partner out again in order to get him off the ship.  
Mick's heavy, but Snart manages to drag him away from the Waverider and to the isolated forest. He feels more than hears a certain assassin following him but, since he can't see her, he can't tell her to go away.  
He kicks Mick tiredly when they're far enough away and the man instantly wakes.  
Snart has to step away. Has to put his back to his partner in order to collect enough strength to take the next step.  
"That's the last time you're gonna hit me." Mick growls at him, but Snart pulls his gun and charges it. Stopping any thoughts of attack.  
"You're right." He can't turn to look at Mick. Not yet.  
"That the plan? Take me out to the middle of nowhere? Where no one can find the body?"  
There's so much in those words that it overwhelms Snart. He tries to calm himself.  
It's not working.  
"I wish there were some other way, Mick." Snart finally turns to look at his partner. "But you're dangerous. A liability to the team."  
"Team?" Mick says it like a curse. "You and I were a team!"  
If Snart didn't know any better, he'd think Mick was near tears.  
But his partner doesn't cry. He doesn't plead or beg.  
Mick gets angrier. "These fools you've got us working with don't even know the meaning of the word. They're going to get us killed."  
"And what were you trying to do, Mick?" Snart bites back. "You handed over the ship to a crew of pirates who wouldn't even blink at the thought of killing us!"  
"Not us," his partner corrects. "Just the others."  
"I might not harbor warm and fuzzy feelings for Captain Deceiver, but Sara, Jax, and the others? They haven't done anything to deserve a death sentence."  
"When part of the crew messed up, you got rid of them," Mick narrows his eyes. "What happened to you?"  
"People change." Even when they don't want to, even when they don't think they need to. It happens to them. "Besides, killing off everyone who disappoints you tends to rack up the body count."  
"You think you're some kind of hero." Mick rises to feet. "But deep down, you're still the same punk kid I saved in juvie." He straightens his shoulders. "You haven't got the guts." he growls, challenging Snart. "You wanna kill me? Kill me."  
Mick pauses, steeling himself to continue with his threat, "Only one of us is walking outta here alive." 

Snart's hand tightens on his gun as he swallows the lump in his throat. Maybe there's another way he hasn't thought about. Maybe, maybe he should just drop the man off back in his 'Disneyland.'  
His indecision gives his partner the perfect opportunity to charge him.  
Mick's in front of him, then shoving him to the ground, then holding the Cold Gun to his face.  
"It didn't have to come to this, Snart," his partner tells him as he holds him down with one hand on his shoulder.  
Snart let's out a breath. "You're right."  
Mick fires.

 

\---


	3. Night of the What? Oh, right, "Hawk"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To prevent too much "doubling" I decided to shorten/simplify certain scenes.  
> [Slight Re-Count in the beginning to make transitioning easier & because they did it in the show.]

His indecision gives his partner the perfect opportunity to charge him.  
Mick's in front of him, then shoving him to the ground, then holding the Cold Gun to his face.  
"It didn't have to come to this, Snart," his partner tells him as he holds him down with one hand on his shoulder.  
Snart let's out a breath. "You're right."  
Mick fires.

 

Sara slams into Mick, knocking the Cold Gun's ray out of range and frosting a strip of ground. The gun falls from his partner's hand as the two tumble away from Snart.  
"Blondie?" the pyro growls, right before the assassin gives the man a swift hit across the temple with one half of her metal staff.  
Poor Mick. He keeps getting knocked out.  
"You ok?" Sara asks him as she gets off their teammate.  
"Peachy," Snart answers as he stands as well.  
"Is that your go-to word when everything's not fine but you wish it was?" The assassin stands next to him so they can both keep an eye on Mick. Her Bond tries to reach him, tries to comfort him, but he doesn't want to be comforted.  
He doesn't deserve to be.  
Snart retrieves his gun from the ground where it had fallen. He looks at the weapon, then at his partner sprawled out on the ground.  
"You're not a killer either, Leonard." Sara tells him firmly from behind. "This trip is changing you just as much as it's changing me. If not more."  
"He's dangerous and my responsibility," he whispers back.  
"Then do something about him, but don't kill him." The assassin touches his hand holding the gun. "The Leonard Snart I know wouldn't settle for only one option."  
Even with his gloves, he can still feel her Broken-Bond connecting with his.  
Is this what it felt like when he used his Bond to convince others to his side of thinking?  
Because it worked.  
"We'll leave him here." Snart holsters the weapon as Sara pulls her hand back. "After we kill Savage, we can come back here and get him."  
"It'll be like we never left." The assassin smirks. "Now, how 'bout a drink?"

 

The two decide to keep the fact that Mick was still alive to themselves. At least for the time being. The team had enough to occupy their minds.

 

They Time Jump.  
Snart's hearing is muffled, while the professor and kid complain about their symptoms and Rip babbles something as well.  
He feels nausea through his Bond with Sara and it oddly reminds him of Mick.  
"Harmony Falls, Oregon."  
Savage's newest playground for his insane conquest game.  
"What's Savage doin' in Pleasantville?" Jax squints at the picture projected on the screen. The kid's still under his 'time jaunt' problem of the day.  
The picture changes to a newspaper clipping that headlines: 'Slasher Strikes Again'  
"Murder, apparently."  
At Rip's recount of slain and missing citizens, the kid turns to Snart. "Kinda like Rory."  
Maybe keeping the fact that he didn't actually kill his partner wasn't his best idea. Sara asks him with her eyes if he wants them to know the truth and he just as discreetly tells her 'no' with a downward glance.  
Rip's still talking. "...the killer is an expert with knives."  
"That sounds like Savage's M.O."  
"Yeah, but serial killing isn't." Raymond's apparently an expert on the man now. "Sounds pretty small time for a guy who's had coffee with Hitler."  
It doesn't matter what the immortal has planned. What matters is how they can get Kendra close enough to kill him so he and Sara can go back and get Mick from the forest.

Rip sends Raymond and Kendra undercover at the first victim's house.  
Snart thinks he's a closet KendRay fan.  
Stein and Sara are going to be sent to the asylum of another victim, while Jax is to 'mingle' with the younger crowd to figure out three disappearances.  
"Where does that leave me?" Snart drawls. He isn't going to be benched.  
The smirk Rip gives him doesn't fill him with confidence.

Feds. Rip and Snart are going to play cops and robbers with the local police.  
Scarlet would be so proud.

 

Rip drives the vintage vehicle. Snart was never the getaway driver, so he lets him.  
"Harmony Falls Sheriff's Dept."  
Seems a bit strange to have a place called "Harmony" and then still need a "Sheriff's Dept." But the sign also said "Falls".  
"We're looking for the Sheriff." Rip's American accent, if you can call it that, made him sound like a gruffy punk.  
"You found him." The Bonded man at the desk says. "Bud Ellison. How can I help you folks?"  
Snart and Rip lift their fake badges in sync.  
"Special Agent Rip Hunter." Rip continues with that horrid voice. "This is my partner," Snart thinks he's going to be sick. "Leonard."  
"We are here to investigate the serial murders which have plagued this sleepy old town of yours."  
Rip must think himself an actor. He's diving right into his cover, all superior officer ego and judgmental glances around the station. He's also making the Sheriff nervous.  
"Woah." Ellison rises to his feet, holding the pliers in his hand almost like a weapon. "Now, slow down there buddy. There, there ain't no serial killer anywhere. All we got're some unexplained accidents is all."  
How many criminals have gotten away with murder when the local badges decided that 'unexplained accident' was a good enough excuse to close the case?  
"How 'bout you hand over those case files so we can decide for ourselves?" Ellison seems hesitant, so Snart continues. "Or we can come back with a court order," he picks up a pencil, mind reeling with all the ways to hurt a man with such a small thing. An 'unexplained accident' of his own. "and a really nasty disposition."  
Snart prefers to threaten people with his Cold Gun, not a #2 pencil, but Rip was adamant that he couldn't so he had to make due with what he had.  
"Anything for our friends in the Bureau."  
The Sheriff's ticked off and insulted as he goes to get the files. There's something...off, about him as well. Snart can't place what it is and he doesn't have time to solve the mini mystery.  
"Nice work, partner."  
He let it slide once, for appearance sake, but he won't allow the bumbling Time Oaf to use such an important term lightly.  
"You're not my partner." Snart drops the pencil before he stabs the oaf with it. He turns to keep an eye on the lawman.  
"There's only one person I ever trusted on this job. We all knew how that turned out."  
Rip's attempt at being friendly is quelled by Snart's anger. Good.  
He can't imagine the man being very friendly with him when he tells him about an added trip to pick up his partner after this crusade is over.  
Ellison returns with the box of evidence so they can leave.

There's nothing in the case files that can lead them to Savage, no surprise there.  
But that's okay, because the monster walks right up to the lovers' doorstep.  
And he thinks Kendra doesn't know who he is.

While Birdie recounts their run-in with their enemy, her new boyfriend stuffs his face with the mad man's casserole.  
Does Raymond's idiocy know no bounds?  
"Are you really eating that?" Kendra asks the scientist, looking about as nauseated as Snart feels.  
"Say what you want about Savage. He makes a great casserole."  
Great. Maybe instead of killing the psycho, they can make him head chef at the super special time prison.  
Hopefully Gideon tested the bowl for poison. Or not. Snart's still on the fence.  
"Yes, well, Mr. Snart and I have been analyzing these forensic files." Rip sounds excited over absolutely nothing. Which is exactly what they got.  
And Snart tells them as much, adding, "except Savage is very good at making people disappear."  
"Something you both have in common."  
Ok. Snart might actually tell Jax about Mick still being alive, since it apparently matters so much to the kid. Then again, the information would automatically be given to Stein, via their connection, and hence leak out to the rest of the team.  
Kendra levels a disapproving look to the kid. Snart didn't know she cared.  
"Are we just gonna pretend like nothing-none of this happened? That Mick Rory wasn't a part of our team?" The kid's anger at him is growing into something possibly troublesome.  
Which is odd, since Raymond, who went to prison with his partner, wasn't this upset.  
"If you can just ice your best friend like that, I hate to think what you could do to us."  
Oh, so that's it. If Snart concentrates on the kid he can feel the underlining protective strand that's fueling his fury. He's less mad about Mick being killed off and more worried about the criminal's willingness to kill the rest of the team.  
Smart kid. Snart respects him for it. You let your guard down, you die.  
"Right now we need to stay focused on the mission." Kendra is uncomfortable with Snart and Jax's glare war. Rip happily joins in on the 'distract the angry people' idea; babbling on about cocktail parties and secret wings in the asylum.

While the others have their parts to play in this mission, Snart goes to the cargo bay. He makes sure the Cold Gun is ready for action, because there's no way he not bringing it next time, and double checks that the Heat Gun is secure for Mick when he gets back. His partner will be angry enough about being left out on the action. Snart doesn't need him to be ticked off about his gun being miss placed too.

 

Snart's no expert on teenagers, but he knows it shouldn't take this long to talk to a girl. Jax is taking too long getting back from his date. With this racist little town, the kid could be dying on the side of the road. Not to mention Savage's presence.  
Snart goes to Rip, tells him to track the kid so they can check on him.  
"I'm sure Mr. Jackson is-"  
"Shut up and do it Rip." Snart cuts him off. Won't take no for an answer. He's going with or without the Time Oaf.  
Rip nods. They take the Fed car from earlier.

"Gideon traced Jax's last bio-signature to this location."  
Snart can feel only one Bond in the vehicle as they approach and it's definitely not Jax's. They both crouch down and see the kid's girl bleeding from a neck wound in the front seat of the car.  
"Well it seems you had good reason to be concerned for Mr. Jackson's safety." Rip remarks lamely. Shame pointed towards himself as they look helplessly at the UnBonded girl.  
"Yeah, sucks being right all the time."  
Stein's not going to be happy about this.

 

Carefully, they take the girl back to the Waverider so Gideon can fix her.  
Snart holds her hand while they lay her down and her weak Bond reaches his.  
Worry, Fear, Confusion, Alarm; they war with the girl's mind as she fights to stay conscious.  
Snart puts his hands back in his pockets.  
Stein appears in the MedBay, bringing his own worry and fear. "What happened?"  
"I don't know but I'm guessing Jax and Peggy Sue had a pretty lousy first date."  
Snart doesn't even finish his last word before Stein pushes with, "Where is Jefferson?"  
"There was no sign of him in the car."  
Rip's hovering, still angry at himself for letting another one of his 'crew' disappear. Especially the youngest member.  
The professor leans in close to the girl, scientist mode clicking in.  
"These wounds. Don't appear consistent with a knife."  
"Correct," Gideon chimes in happily. "I believe these lacerations were made by talons."

The girl weakly tells them about Tommy Fuller, one of the missing teenagers, possibly her future Bond-Mate, coming in contact with a special rock that can turn people into bird monsters.  
As if they didn't have enough problems to deal with. That's probably what Savage is doing in that 'Restricted Area' spot in the asylum; making psycho bird minions.

 

The glowing meteorite is also the same type that gave Kendra her 'Hawkgirl' powers. Which explains how Savage knew about it. The man needs a hobby.  
After Rip and Stein recount what the girl said to Kendra, Snart decides to point out a very important question, "Is it curable?"  
"Well, I-uh, suppose i-if the talons which lacerated her left some mutagenic residue I could-" Stein's babbling. Why were the hyper intelligent so incapable of simple answers? Snart decides to help the poor old man.  
"Yes or no." See? Simple answer.  
"Perhaps."  
Close enough.  
"Why don't you get to work on that, Martin?" Rip sounds tired.  
Perhaps he thought his 'Legendary' team wouldn't need so much rescuing. Or perhaps he's thinking about how said team would react if he tried to abandon the kid.  
It wouldn't be pretty. Snart's tired just thinking of all the ways to beat the Time Imbecile senseless.  
The 'look' Stein gives the criminal has him thinking about his partner, which in turn directs his attention to the Broken-Bond woman he's connected to now.  
Who's also speaking, "Okay, so if Savage isn't the one doing the killing, what is he doing in town?"  
"Doesn't matter."  
Raymond shows off the magic dagger, bringing even Rip's mopey face to the table.  
"We can take him down." Kendra points out, proud of her new boyfriend.  
Correction, as soon as we get Jax back. Even Rip-the-abandoner says as much. They plan their attack on Savage to target his weakness, AKA Kendra, which lowers Bright Eyes' peppiness while heightening his fear and worry.  
"He wants me and he always has. So, if I can get close enough to him, then-"  
"Then he'll kill you."  
Had Raymond forgotten HOW they were going to 'defeat Savage'? Did the whole 'only Kendra can kill him' part leave his rainbow sunshine brain?  
"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Kendra's offended. "But I don't need your protection."  
"There's no reason to go alone." Raymond tries to recover from his over-protective blunder. "We're part of a team for a reason."  
"Yes, and the team seems comfortable with me doing this." What's left of the team to give their opinion. Sara shrugs, face reading 'sure.' Of course Rip is fine with it, but he's looking at Ray to avoid looking at Kendra. "So that makes it about you and me."  
They probably wouldn't work out as a couple anyway.  
Kendra takes the dagger and leaves in a huff. Snart turns away.

 

When Sara leaves, Snart follows. The woman's terrified and excited, but bottling it up so well Snart wouldn't know if he wasn't Bonded to her.  
"You're in a good mood," Snart drawls from the woman's doorway. "But you're hiding it. Why?"  
"I met someone."  
"Do tell." He feels like a teenager (about to be told about a secret crush) as he sits on the bed across from the assassin.  
"She's nice and sweet and totally my type but," Sara shakes her head. "I don't know."  
"You're not cheating on your Bond-Mate," he assures her. "You said yourself the two of you can't Re-Bond," he grins mischievously. "And there's no way of knowing if she hasn't been hanging out with her own lovers while you've been away."  
"You've got a dirty mind, Leonard," the assassin glares at the crook, but there's no ferocity to it. After a moment she lets out a sigh, "And that's not it either."  
Silence stales the air between them but Snart waits. Patience with women tends to work the best. Even expert-assassin women who could kill him in a blink.  
"I'm still afraid of what's inside me," Sara says quietly. "My blood lust makes me a monster and I'm afraid if I let people in they'll see it."  
Slowly, so he doesn't spook the assassin and wind up on the ground, Snart touches the blonde on the leg. Sara doesn't move but the crook can still feel her muscles tensing, possibly on instinct.  
"I've seen what's inside you, Sara." He keeps his voice just as quiet as hers was. "And it's nothing to be afraid of."  
Snart stands after his little speech and leaves the woman's room. That should fill his 'touchy-feely' quota for the rest of the year.

 

And so begins the next plan. Rip goes in as an orderly, Sara's still a nurse, and Raymond is a crazy patient. It was fitting and most likely a futuristic eventuality.  
While Kendra goes to talk to Savage, Stein and Snart take the entrance through the basement.  
After all, how could Savage go for 'Villain of the Centuries' if he didn't use a creepy basement at least once in the Time Line?

Snart decides to use the opportunity alone with the professor to ask him something.  
"Doesn't it ever bother you?" He drawls conversationally. "To have another's feelings clouding your mind all the time?"  
"At first it was, perhaps. And, to be honest with myself, on a rare occasion of a miss-spoken word. But, for its entirety, no." Stein smiles. "I wouldn't change my situation for anything in the world."  
Snart can't say he agrees, but he doesn't have a regular Bond with only one or two Bond-Mates. Must be nice though, to have someone like that.  
"Well, then. Let's get your other half."

They keep moving, slowly and carefully in case there are any traps or guards.

An alarm buzzes; obviously not good. It's accompanied by animal sounds, not quite growling and occasionally clicking; and it's coming towards them.  
"Oh boy."  
"Just when you think you've seen everything."  
Savage has released his 'bird monsters.' The thing jumps in front of them, wings outspread.  
Snart shoots it. It lands on top of some tall canisters, causing an explosion.  
Another jumps to take its place, Snart hits it mid-flight.  
"Guess those missing kids are no longer missing."  
Another comes around the corner. It's Jax. Even though mangled, the kid's Bond is still recognizable. Plus it's wearing the kid's clothes.  
Stein curses.  
"It's Jefferson." The professor says. He tries to reason with it. "Jefferson, it's us!"  
The things offers the man an open mouthed growl, then a wide winged screech.  
Snart pushes the professor out of the way, knocking the older man into a chair. He won't allow Jax to hurt his Bond-Mate. The kid would never forgive himself.  
He's also not about to let Monster Jax kill him either. He charges and points the gun.  
"Jax! Don't make me do this."  
The monster gets closer...Maybe he can shoot it in the legs and stop it from moving  
Closer...Should probably just hit it over the head. It worked so many times for Mick.  
Another creature shouts, startling Snart and drawing his attention away.  
When Snart turns back, Monster Jax slashes at his left arm and the criminal falls. Snart shoots upwards to a pipe that breaks blows something into the monster's face.  
Snart's already moving, grabbing Stein and pulling the professor to safety.

"But Jefferson!" Stein complains.  
"We'll have to come back for him later!" Snart shoots down any forming ideas about going back. "We better get back to the others. See what's going on with this alarm."

The criminal's grip on the older man slips from his arm to his hand as they run down the halls and Stein gasps, pulling away.  
Shoot. Snart realized too late that he forgot to put his gloves on. Completely ignoring their current danger, the scientist looks at the crook with great big eyes.  
"How-?"  
"Talk later," Snart grabs his hand again, ignoring how that connects them again. He has to get Stein away from his mutated counter part. "Running for life now."

Once he's confident the professor will continue to follow him, Snart finally lets go and leads the way down the last hallway towards where the others should be.  
His new Bond with Stein distracts him from noticing Monster Jax's coming at him from the left and the newly made Bird Boy slices at him once more. The kid missed that time, but Snart loses the Cold Gun.  
Snart steps away from the crewman-turned-creature, arm automatically moving to pull Stein behind him. The thing 'cries' at them.  
Monster Jax swipes at him again and misses.  
Snart lifts up a hand, body jerking slightly as he tries to read where the thing will swipe at next. It cries again, then Sara hits it with her stick, knocking it out.  
It's times like these that Snart really, really likes the assassin.  
"It's time to go."  
"Not without Jefferson." Was that ever in question? 

 

Back on the Waverider: Snart's out of his, now ruined, Fed suit and (finally) back into his normal clothes. The arm wound isn't too bad, it's barely bleeding, so he patches it up himself.  
Kendra hadn't killed Savage after all. They've also lost the dagger, again.  
Gideon informs him when Stein's ready to inject the kid with the science concoction.  
He goes to the MedBay.

"Gideon was able to help me devise a gene therapy that will hopefully restore Jefferson and those at the asylum to their former selves." The professor sounds as hopeful as he feels. "If genome bonding occurs, we should know right away."  
Rip poses in MedBay like some sort of hero, trying to hide his mounting concern for the Bird Boy lying on the chair-like bed.  
"Course, we never would have the slightest chance of saving him, were it not for you." Stein doesn't bring up the whole 'what the heck happened when you touched me' thing. Which is nice. Snart wants to explain that to the professor without Rip around.  
"Another minute and things might've gone down very differently." Snart was sincerely tempted to clock the kid over the head and drag him back to the ship.  
"Despite your bravado, Mr. Snart," Stein continues. "The actions that I witnessed last night were nothing short of heroic."  
The professor is gut twistingly happy about what the criminal did. Even though the man still thinks he killed his partner, he's actually glad to be in the same room as him.  
The monitor behind Snart beeps. He turns, even though he doesn't really understand what he's looking at.  
Monster Jax growls softly. Snart turns his attention back to see the kid's eyes have returned to normal. His Multi-Bond is growing in strength as well, putting a smile on Stein's face.  
"It's working."  
All three men can't pull their eyes away from Jax's transformation.

Snart waits until the kid is back to looking like himself and definitely not returning to part bird man. The second Gideon gleefully informs them that Jax is 'back to normal,' Snart bows out of the room.  
The appreciation and respect Stein keeps sending him is starting to get on his nerves.

Sara is waiting for him in his room.  
"How's Jax?" she asks, back in her own clothes as well and sitting on his bed.  
"He looks better without the beak," Snart smirks, taking the spot next to the assassin.  
"How are you?" Sara motions to his arm.  
"Just a scratch," he tilts his head to her. "Did you talk to her?"  
"I was a little busy," she scoffs. "But I did save her life."  
"And she'll be forever indebted to you."  
"Shut up, crook," Sara nudges him in the injured arm. Snart grunts lightly, briefly touching the wound as the assassin offers an apologetic smile.  
That can't be the only reason she's in the room, "And?"  
"I just," Sara shrugs. "Felt something off?"  
Well, that's interesting.  
Snart sighs. "Stein knows something's up."  
Sara raises an eyebrow. "How?"  
"We held hands," he remarks sarcastically, "It was all very romantic."  
The assassin shoves him a little; still in the injured arm. Snart hisses as his hand moves to wrap around the wound to protect it.  
"Sorry," the blonde verbally apologizes that time. "You're just taking this too lightly."  
"I never asked for this." Snart frowns, arm throbbing lightly from the abuse. "I can take it however I want."  
Sara lets the comment slide, "So does this mean two more people are going to be in on the secret? Or are you ready to spill the beans to everyone?"  
"If I can help it, the Firestorm duo will be the last two to learn about my Bond." The criminal stands. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some rest."  
"Need your beauty sleep, Leonard?" the assassin teases, standing anyway so she can walk to the door.  
Snart's not about to let her have the last word. "Just make sure that when you see your girl again, you give her something to remember you by."

 

The next morning, Sara & Jax leave to say their goodbyes while Raymond and Kendra pack up their things. Bright Eyes' rescue of Birdie might've increased his chances of making things up to her, but Snart can't shake the feeling it's going to end in heartbreak.

Stein finds Snart in the store room cleaning his Cold Gun.  
"Mr. Snart." The professor nods to the criminal. "I believe we have something of some importance to discuss."  
"Is that so?" Snart drawls, wiping down the side of his weapon with a rag. "And what might that be?"  
"I never was very good at this myself, not even in my younger years." The older man laughs lightly at a memory. "But I believe it at least curteous to get to know your Bond-Mates as well as you can. Not that I'm expecting anything from you, Mr. Snart," he quickly adds. "I'm as surprised as you probably are that you are part of my Multi-Bond but, be that as it may, we are connected now and..." Snart can't help it; he starts chuckling. "...Why are you laughing?"  
The poor man had no idea. The scientist had made a logical assumption. But it was still an incorrect one.  
"I fail to see what is so funny." Stein's cheeks are an impressive shade of pink.  
"I'm not your Bond-Mate, Stein," Snart tells him, laughter replaced with a smirk. "To the best of my knowledge, your Multi-Bond still consists of three people."  
"But, at the asylum, when you touched my hand." Thankfully, he didn't say 'held my hand'. The professor frowns. "I know what I felt."  
The Cold Gun's pieces easily slide into place, the gun charging in his hands instantly.  
"What do you know about the Infinite-Bond?" Snart keeps his eyes focused on the blue glow of the weapon, Bond too eager to reach out to a new member.  
Stein makes a noise just shy of a derisive snort, "An Infinite-Bond is a fairy tale for small children. I don't know why you are bringing..." the professor slows, "it..." his eyes grow a little bigger than they should be. "...up."  
"You can't be serious."  
Snart smirks, turning his full attention to the older man. "I wish I wasn't."  
"You?" Stein blinks a few times. "You?!"  
"Surprising, I know." Snart holsters his gun and offers his bare hand to Stein. "Need proof?"  
The professor doesn't even hesitate, perhaps his scientific curiosity controlling his body, he takes Snart's hand and the Bond grows with the contact.  
"Fascinating!" Stein smiles brightly. "Do you really have two infinity symbols?"  
"Just like the legend says," the criminal drawls, letting down enough of his internal walls to let the scientist reach him. "I need you to keep this from everyone but Jax."  
"I can tell Jefferson?" The professor's eyebrows shoot upwards.  
Snart taps his own temple. "Shared consciousness would make this hard to keep from the kid. Don't you think?"  
"Right, of course." Stein nods. "I can imagine why you wouldn't want this to go around the ship. I will do my best to keep it between us."  
"Thanks." The criminal smirks appreciatively.  
"You can let go of my hand now."  
"Right, sorry."

 

Snart excuses himself from Stein's scientific mumblings to sit by the large front window. He sits on the ledge and just stares, hand holding his arm against the sore spot as he compartmentalizes the new Bond tumbling around in his head.  
Then Jax comes back.  
"Well look who's up and around."  
The kid makes a nervous noise. This won't be good.  
"Yeah, I guess I owe you an apology."  
Snart turns his head to the kid, but doesn't look up.  
"Grey told me about what happened back at the asylum."  
Does that include the Infinite-Bond? Had the professor gotten around to talking about that too already? Snart can't imagine the older man being able to keep 'marvels' like that to himself for long.  
"You had the chance to kill me...and you didn't." The kid breathes in. "After last night I know enough about being a monster to know that you're not one."  
The kid's no longer angry at him for killing Mick. That's good, especially since he'd just feel bad about it later when he found out it was a lie, but why?  
Snart decides to keep up the façade anyway, "Stop, I'm getting misty eyed."  
He turns back to looking out the window.  
"I just want you to know." A pause, another breath. "About what happened with Rory?" The kid winces like it hurts to think about it. "I get it."  
Snart finally looks at the kid. What can he possible 'get'?  
"You were protecting us." Did he now. "And that doesn't make you a murderer, it makes you a part of this team."  
So, Stein hadn't gotten around to filling the kid in on the 'other thing' yet. That's nice of the old man.  
"Jefferson you should be resting." Stein appears as if he heard the criminal thinking about him, rescuing Snart from the mushy feelings Jax is feeding him.  
"Aw, man, I'm-I'm done laying around. I just wanna get outta Mayberry."  
They really should move on to Savage's next world domination plan.  
"Agreed! We're still waiting on Sara and the two love birds to get back."  
He looks at Stein, briefly glances at Jax, then raising his eyebrows; asking: 'Did you tell him?'  
Stein minutely shrugs; answering: 'Not yet.' Or, possibly. 'What are you hinting at?'  
Snart smirks, grateful for the extra time before he has another person breathing down his kneck about his Bond.  
He's also glad the man doesn't just blurt it out because now Rip is on the bridge too.  
"It seems they've taken quite a shine to 1958." 

Something hits the ship, shaking them all to the ground.  
"What on earth?"  
"Gideon?"  
Snart runs over to the table computer. Chronos is shooting at them.  
"Not this guy again." Snart doesn't have time to waste battling ridiculous Time Bounty Hunters while trying to kill a psycho immortal.  
"Captain, Chronos has breached the starboard hatch." Things must be pretty bad if even Gideon sounds unhappy about it.  
"How is that possible?"  
"Clearly," Snart pulls his gun & charges it while Rip flounders. "he's received some new toys from his Time Master friends since our last encounter."  
Rip moves, shouting, "GIDEON! SEAL THE BULKHEAD FROM HERE-!"  
The man's orders are cut short when Chronos arrives in front of them, hitting Rip square in the chest and throwing him back. Snart shoots at the intruder but misses.  
Jax and Stein run for cover near the other door.  
Chronos shoots back, but Snart ducks and returns fire, Rip shoots as well as he gets to his feet. The bounty hunter moves back to use the door he entered in as a shield as he continues to fire at them.  
Rip moves, letting off another shot as he goes.  
In the background the kid and professor are arguing the merits and dangers of merging to create Firestorm.  
The bounty hunter moves out from behind his spot to fire again, and Rip shoots back.  
Snart almost runs right into another shot.  
"Fall back!" Rip orders, shooting at the intruder to cover them as he moves to the other door. "Get to the Jump Ship!"  
Snart follows after Stein and the kid, letting Rip handle the rear.

Jax leads the way as they run down the halls to the smaller Time Ship.  
"Hey, come on!"  
"You sure it was a good idea leaving the Terminator on the bridge?" Why wouldn't the man who wants them to stop Time Traveling NOT mess with the one thing that allows them to Time Travel?  
Next to the engine room, isn't the bridge the worst place to let your enemy be near?  
"Gideon has lock down protocols which-"  
"Have been overridden, Captain."  
Rip stops.  
"Chronos is utilizing superior Time Master technology. I cannot counterman his orders."  
The ships moving. They're flying away. Away from the others.  
Sara was still here. And they needed Kendra to kill Savage.  
Maybe they could convince the bounty hunter to take Raymond instead?  
"He's Time Jumping the ship."  
And it's far more uncomfortable standing up than it is in their harnessed chairs.  
"The ladies will be left in 1958!"  
"What about Ray?" The kid's eyes are bigger than normal. Stein's using him as a support beam to stay standing.  
"Like I said." Snart can't help himself.  
"Let's go!" Rip heads back from where they came. "We have to stop him."  
Snart pushes off and follows. Rip lands against the opposite wall of the door that opens to the bridge. Snart takes the other side.  
"Gideon," Rip readies his gun. "Open the doors on my mark."  
He turns to the Multi-Bond-Mates. "Get to the Jump Ship and escape."  
"We are not abandoning you." Stein refuses; hazarding a meaningful glance to Snart.  
"No, you are obeying a direct order from your captain!"  
Snart reassures Stein through their Bond to go with Rip's orders. For the first time, Snart's glad the duo think of Rip as their leader, because they only hesitate for a second before doing as he says. 

Rip looks to Snart, silently asking him if he's ready.  
Snart nods.  
"Now Gideon." Rip charges in with a shout and gets the first shot off. Chronos immediately fires back.

Snart and Rip take cover behind the seats while the bounty hunter's bullets fly overhead. Rip moves around his spot to fire at their enemy and dodges away again before he can get hit with the green orb projectile. Snart takes his turn, and Rip joins in as he ducks away from the next shot.  
As they exchange fire, Rip goes to the right while Snart takes the left.  
The closer Snart gets to Chronos, the more familiar the bounty hunter's Bond feels. Was it just because they've run into him before?  
That can't be right.  
"Your right, Snart, down!" the Captain warns. Snart narrowly dodges a hit.  
Another shot buzzes by Rip's head, "Gah!"  
Focus, Snart. He tries again to shoot the bounty hunter, just a chair away from the armor-clad man now, but it only frosts the top of the captain's seat.  
Chronos is on the other side of the chair, two bullets already fired and hitting Snart square in the chest.  
Snart feels the pain on the way down as the world is enveloped in darkness.  
His head hits the ground and the last thing he thinks he hears is, "No, Mr. Snart!"

 

\---


	4. The Leavers & The Finders (E9)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm fighting with my brain when I write...  
> /*This means it's a memory.*/

Snart startled awake. His arms weren't cooperating and he looked down at the bulky handcuffs around his wrists.   
Footsteps are clanging behind the criminal and he glances to see it's Chronos. He tries again to get out of his spot but neither the cuffs or the pipe railing have any give, so he resorts to pulling back defensively when the bounty hunter reaches him.  
Chronos passes him without a word.  
"Uh, hello?" Some criminals have no manners.  
"A UFO sighting in Hub City in 1960 has created an anomaly." The robotic voice of the bounty hunter tells him. Snart does his best to look for other captured 'Legends.'   
"It looks like your friends survived."  
So it is just him then.   
But, "What would they be doing in 1960?" Last he checked, they were in 1958. Why would they jump forward two years?

Chronos doesn't answer.   
Snart's heart has stopped pounding in his ears now, so he focuses on his kidnapper. He's surprised when he realizes the robo-man has a Shattered-Bond.   
Maybe that's what gave the man (or maybe it was a woman? hard to tell in that metal get up) the ability to chase down other human beings and be such a pain in the rear end.  
Snart takes a breath. He has to focus, clear his mind. Figure out a way to escape.  
But the familiarity he felt about the other was like an itch he couldn't find, let alone scratch.   
The fact that the bounty hunter wasn't the chatty type wasn't going to help things.

Eventually the silent treatment pushed Snart too far and he decides to ask the obvious question.  
"So, uh," Snart looks around again for a way to get out of the cuffs. "What's so special about me?" He's just a good for nothing criminal after all. "I mean aside from my sparkling personality." The ship's like a compact version of Rip's vessel. "Back on the Waverider you could've taken your boy Rip." You could've taken the Time Oaf and ended this whole thing. "But you took me instead. Why?"   
Chronos remains quiet; keeps his back turned towards Snart.  
Not helpful at all.  
"Hey, if you're gonna kill me, you could at least tell me what's going on." It's basic criminal etiquette.

Chronos finally turns, if only to his side. "You should have figured it out by now."  
Figured what out? Did the Shattered-Bond hunter have a crush on him or something?  
Chronos reaches up with both hands and removes his helmet.  
When Snart sees Mick's face the world stops.  
His shoulder slips, 'What the-?'  
"After all," Chronos-no-Mick, Mick walks closer, kneels in front of Snart. "I am supposed to be the dumb one."  
Snart's mouth hags open in response but no words come out. He nods numbly to his partner. What happened? What has he done? What was in that forest? 

What? Why? How?   
He decides to start with that last one.  
"How?" How are you HERE Mick? Who got you out of that place? Who knew you were even there?  
His partner doesn't answer. Just keeps staring at him while Snart chokes on the inside by the ANGER being flooded to him.  
It makes Snart just as furious, "I think I deserve," Snart pulls on the cuffs again, he really wishes he could use his arms. "to know what the heck is going on!"  
"You deserve nothing."   
"Says the man who sold," Snart spits. "us out to the pirates!"   
"I wasn't supposed to be there." Mick monotones. "I was trying to get us home."  
"At what cost?" Snart growls back. "When I dropped you off in that forest, I meant to kill you. That was the plan."   
"You should have stuck with the plan and done me a favor. What happened? Did Blondie talk you out of it?" Mick is still staring at Snart with those dead, bounty hunter eyes. His tone is even and controlled. As angry as Mick feels, he isn't trying to set anything on fire.  
Something is definitely off about this version of his partner.  
"I may not have trusted you on the ship with the team." Or at home with any of their loved ones. "But I was coming back for you!"   
"Like Rip was going to go back for you?" Mick counters. "Seems like one of us lost track of time."  
Mick is still far too calm. This isn't the Mick he knows. This is someone else.  
What happened to him in that forest?  
"Well how long did you-?"  
"By the time they found me!" Mick shouts over Snart's question, a part of the old Mick finally showing itself. "I'd nearly lost my mind."  
Guilt and Regret eat at Snart like a cancer, while fear clawed its way up his spine.  
"I was so weak, I was strangling rats," Mick hisses the word. "to survive."  
"When who found you?" Who messed with the Time Line and got in the way of Snart rescuing his partner? Who turned the man in front of him into the bounty hunter Chronos?  
Mick finally turned his glare away. "The Time Masters."  
It figured as much. They were so determined to mess everything up, they would go as far as turning Snart's partner against him.  
Mick rises to his feet and begins to walk around the control panel. "They took me to a place called The Vanishing Point. Time doesn't exist there the way it does on earth." Snart swallowed the lump in his throat, mind reeling with the realization that this whole time they were being hunted, it was his partner all along. HIS partner who wasn't even supposed to be on the time traveling mission to begin with. "I've spent lifetimes being restored by them. Training by them. Fighting by them. Being reborn."  
Mick makes it sound so lovely, but no one gets renovated upstairs without doing some damage first.  
"And, uh, when exactly did your new friends give you the, uh, lobotomy?"  
The Time Cronies must have brainwashed Mick. It made Snart sick to his stomach.  
Mick's angry at him again, rushing around the control panel to get closer to him.  
"You think I was hunting you and your friends because the Time Masters made me? They barely had to ask."  
It's hard to breathe. There's a weight on Snart's chest and he forces himself to take in air and push it back out.

 

"Look, if you're gonna kill me, just do it already." Snart's desire to survive vanished the second he saw his partner's face. He can't bare the thought of feeling any more Bonds dying while knowing it was his fault they were gone.  
Maybe the others will manage to stop Mick.  
"I can't kill you," Mick growls. "But I can still take you apart."  
Wait-What? Not kill him? "Who doesn't want you to kill me, Mick?"   
"The Time Masters," Mick answers angrily. "They think you're something special. Something that could be important to the Time Line."  
"I thought us 'Legends' weren't important," Snart frowns. What could the Time Morons want with him?  
"Apparently," his ex-partner kneels down in front of him again. "You've got some sort of super Bond that they're interested in."  
Snart's heart stutters then sinks to the pit of his stomach.  
"You believe that load of crap?" he drawls, but it's not as calm as his usual tone.  
"Computer," Mick keeps eye contact while he addresses the AI. "Scan Mr. Snart's hands and tell me what sort of Bond-Marks he has."  
"Certainly, sir," the room brightens with a strange red-green-purple-blue color then the light blinks away as the AI chirps. "There are two Infinity Symbols on Mr. Snart's hands. Mr. Snart, therefor, has an Infinite-Bond."  
Mick grins as Snart's body goes numb.  
"I suppose that explains our easy partnership." The partner-turned-bounty hunter stands again. "You used me. Since that day in Juvie I felt a pull to you. One I had never felt before."  
Mick looks like he's about to punch a wall, but he clenches his fist tightly and rests it against it instead.  
"Being with you eased my Shattered-Bond when nobody else could. I always wondered why," his ex-partner glares at him. "Now I know."  
"So you're going to kill everyone but leave me unscathed?" Snart glares back. "How is that going to teach me a lesson?"  
"You've changed." Mick tone sounds as dead as his expression looks. "You care about those people. You're probably even Bonded to a few of them. Sara, right?"  
Snart's heart starts beating on his chest like it wants to escape.  
"I'll kill each and every one of them in front of you." Chronos says. "Then I'll hand you over to the Time Masters to experiment on to their heart's content."  
It's a nightmare.  
The world tilts and hazes around the edges, so Snart closes his eyes.

"Sir, several anomalies in the Time Line suggest that the Waverider has touched down in Nanda Parbat" The voice of the Time Ship announces.  
"Chart a course."  
Breathe. When did such a simple task become so hard?  
Chronos is moving again, footsteps echoing in the white noise of Snart's head. The bounty hunter stop next to him. "I used to think the most beautiful thing on earth was fire. Now I know, it's vengeance."  
Mick is going to kill the rest of the team.   
It's all Snart's fault.  
He should have killed his partner when he had the chance.

 

They make it to Sara's assassin school. Snart finally has control of his 'feelings' again.   
When Chronos strides passed him to leave, he kicks his leg out and trips the man.  
The bounty hunter helmet flies out of Mick's hands as he lands on his front.   
Growling, his ex-partner pulls off the strap to his gun and turns back to Snart.  
"This is between you and me, Mick," the name feels odd on his tongue, but he pushes on. "You don't have to be the mindless drone the Time Manipulators made you. You can use this ship to become Mick again. You can stop yourself from ever getting on the Waverider!"  
Chronos chuckles. "You think you can tempt me with that? That's your best plan?"  
The bounty hunter pulls himself to his feet. "We're passed that point, Snart."  
"It's what you wanted with the pirates." He reminds him. "What's the difference if the ship came from them or the Time Morons?"  
"I owe them." Chronos picks up his gun and re-slings it over his shoulder.  
"You owe them nothing!" Snart spits out, pulling on the cuffs again without thinking about it. "One of theirs got us into this mess! Then they took advantage of you at your weakest and made you a killing machine! Think, Mick! Think about what you're about to do for the same people who put you in this mess."  
"YOU put me in this mess!" That spark of his old partner is back again, brightening his eyes as the man grabs Snart's collar. "And I'll make you pay if it's the last thing I do."  
Snart doesn't back down. "And what do you think your new masters are gonna do with you once you kill the team and deliver me up to them?"  
Chronos realizes what he's doing and releases the criminal. With a grunt, he goes for his helmet still resting on the ground several steps away.  
"I don't expect there's a pension plan for old bounty hunters..." With no one to hunt. "Once they get what they want from you, they're gonna toss you aside."  
"Like you tossed me aside?"  
"You and I both made choices that lead us to this moment. What matters, Mick, is your next move. And I'm willing to bet, that some little piece of the old you is in that armor. Somewhere."   
Somewhere in there is his old partner who'd rather set the place aflame then seek pointless revenge. Someone who used to pull jobs with him and had his back.  
Someone he used to be able to trust.

"No. You're wrong." Chronos puts on his helmet and leaves.

 

Snart waits for the door to close before turning to make his escape. He wiggles his cuffed hands around the bend of the pole, then slides them down until it reaches a support. Two hits and it gives. A few more inches, another broken support, and Snart's at the other side of the railing.  
He looks around until he finds his gun.  
Reaching as far as the cuffs allow, Snart kicks at the bottom of the shelf holding his weapon until he can get his foot to pull the Cold Gun off and to the ground.  
The weapon makes a noise as if in protest and Snart drags it closer to himself.  
Next step?  
Snart looks to the gun, then to the handcuffs.  
With time against him, Snart goes for the first plan that will work.

Snart drops to his back, kicking off a shoe so he can use his foot to pull the trigger.  
It takes some doing, but he eventually manages to charge the gun and aim it. Snart moves his target away from himself as much as he can.  
He takes a breath.  
Snart fires.  
He shouts as the blue light of the Cold Gun hits his hand.  
Is this what Barry felt every time he shot him? It's a wonder Scarlett claimed to see any good in him.

When Snart is certain his hand is completely frozen, he stop firing. He pushes the weapon away so he doesn't accidently fire again. Then he blacks out.

/*'I always knew my big brother was special.*/  
/*'Told you there was good in you. - You can literally be everyone's best friend.*/  
/*'What a load of crap.'*/  
/*'You? - You?!'*/

Snart pushes the darkness away, pulling himself off the ground until he's kneeling and holding his iced hand to his face.  
He's right handed. Things'll be harder to deal with in the future, but he'll adapt.  
Steeling himself, Snart rams his hand to the ground.  
His hand shatters and he cries out in pain again.

 

It takes a few breaths and a growl of determination, but Snart gets his shoe back on, holsters his gun with his left hand, and runs out of the ship.  
Chronos had made a path for him to follow. He can feel the familiar Bonds of the team and they call to him like a beacon to where they're fighting his ex-partner.  
"You son of a-" Firestorm's about to hit Chronos with his flames.  
Snart clutches his stub tightly as he shouts, "Don't do it!"   
He looks at the blended Bond-Mates, "Don't kill him."  
Wait a minute. Why was he still trying to save Mick?  
"Snart?" The kid and professor are relieved to see him, but equally confused.  
The other's faces have similar expressions.  
Except for Rip.   
"Sorry, don't kill Chronos?"   
Rip is angry.  
"He's not Chronos." They can't kill Mick without knowing it's him.  
His partner deserves to meet his end as himself. Not who the Time Manipulators convinced him to be.  
"Show him." Snart orders Mick, but his ex-partner doesn't move.  
Snart looks to Firestorm. The kid grabs a hold of the helmet and pulls it off.  
The whole team stares in disbelief.  
Mick crawls to his weapon in a last ditch effort to fight back, but Sara kicks him in the head, knocking him out.

 

"Leonard?" Sara jogs over to him, looks at his stub while she keeps her emotions bottled up in assassin mode.  
Their Bond feels a little strange. Probably because Sara's technically two years older now and Snart's in too much pain to figure it out or care. Her presence still eases some of the tightness in his chest.  
"How is Mick, Chronos?" Kendra asks.  
"The affect this must have had on the Time Line..." Raymond starts to mumble under his breath while he tries to figure it out.  
"Not really the time or place," Snart grounds out. His arm aches as he tries to grip it tighter. Sara slips a supporting arm under his uninjured one and challenges him with her eyes to make her take it back.  
"We have to get him back to the ship before he wakes up and tries to kill us again," Bright Eyes agrees. "I'll carry him."  
"I'll help." Firestorm volunteers.  
They've earned a small crowd of onlookers hiding in the shadows of the dimly lit room. As Snart turns to leave the world spins and he closes his eyes. Sara's grip on his arm keeps him upright. Without a word, she guides him back to the ship.

 

Sara eases Snart onto one of the crates in the cargo bay so he can rest.  
"Don't you have to strike your name from the club sign-in sheet?" He drawls, swallowing down the nausea that threatens to empty his stomach.  
"Are you going to faint on me, Leonard?" Sara asks evenly. "After flying off without me?"  
"I wasn't playing pilot." He smirks at her. "And I ain't a princess to swoon over an assassin in, what are you wearing?"  
"It's not shining armor." The Blonde smirks back. "I'll take you to MedBay first."  
"No point." He shakes his head. "I'd rather go to my room."  
"Leonard."  
"Sara."  
Snart looks up at the woman. "Just go say goodbye to your murder besties. I'll be fine."  
"Like your friends are any better."  
"Touché."

 

After a brief talk with the assassin head honcho and a change of clothes for a few of the team members, they all meet in the brig to see and talk about Mick.   
Snart hides his frozen stump in his jacket. He doesn't want the pitying stares on top of everything else.  
"You think this is all over. I will kill every single one of you. I will watch you all burn!" That's a phrase Snart's all too familiar with. Maybe he's right about a part of his partner still being in there.   
Mick turns to Snart, "You! You should have killed me when you had the chance."  
Snart knows. Doesn't make it an easier a burden to bear.  
Rip activates something inside the brig, which makes a light turn red and causes Mick to calm down. "You owe us an explanation."   
"Yes, it's quite remarkable Mr. Rory is working for the Time Masters, considering, you killed him." Stein's a rollercoaster of emotions. Welcome to the club.  
"If you think back." Sara speaks up for him. "He never actually said he killed him."   
He hadn't said much at all, actually.  
"Wait a minute." Raymond points at the assassin. "You knew?"  
"I was there."  
"Why did you let us think you killed Rory?" Jax demands to know.  
"Thought there was enough on your plates already." Snart offers. Then he glares at Rip. "Didn't know how certain time members would feel about it either."  
"Did you honestly think that, just because I did not originally plan to have Mr. Rory aboard this vessel, that I would go against any feasible plans to save him?" Rip pretends to look offended but his voice lacks conviction.  
"You did vote to leave me behind in Russia." Snart reminds him with a snear. "And I was actually on your list of merry minions."  
"That's all behind us now." Sara steps between them, her back to Snart in a protective posture against Rip. "What's important now is what we do with Rory."  
"Since it appears I am in need of redeeming myself, I shall point out the positive." Rip smiles at expectant faces. "We can reform Mr. Rory."  
The man was an idiot. Did he think people had a reset button? Did he have his own brainwashing machine aboard the ship?  
"He killed Aldus." Kendra says angrily.   
It doesn't deter the captain. "Under the influence of the Time Masters."  
"Chronos killed Aldus." Stein agrees with the idiot. "Mr. Rory was fighting on our side that day."  
"I know what it's like to be trained by an organization for one purpose. To kill. The kind of loyalty that can inspire." Sara's determined. Maybe feeling a touch responsible as well. "I need to know we can reach Rory. For my own sake."  
"Time Masters took one of our own and turned him against us." Stein's taking over Rip's job as the empowering speech maker. "I say, we undo their handiwork."  
"Rory saved my life, back in the Gulag. He's more than just a criminal and an arsonist." Typical, Mr. Positive, Raymond.   
"He's a member of our team."  
"He's a lost cause!" As much as Snart wants his partner back, the man is a threat to the others. They shouldn't risk their lives so carelessly.  
"Ah, I wouldn't be too sure about that." Rip is all confidence as he lowers his voice to dramatically add, "You will see that miracles abound on this old Time Ship."   
Sara rests her hand on Snart's shoulder, nodding to him confidently like she knows that they can do it.

They're all fools.  
But a part of Snart hopes that they're right.  
For their sakes.  
And his own.

 

"With me, Mr. Snart," Rip tells him as they all file out of the room. "Let's have Gideon take a look at that arm of yourself."  
Snart follows the other to MedBay. His arm still aches. He isn't a medical genius, but he figures the partially frozen off limb will probably have to be operated on to seal it or something.   
Sara, Stein and Jax follow behind the criminal.  
Rip seats him in the chair and puts the little medical bracelet on his other wrist. The man practically dances around the room as he starts pushing buttons and pulls out a white table that he has Snart put his stub on and the attached pencil looking thing lights up blue.  
"Gideon. Start the regeneration process."  
Snart jerks his head to the man, "What do you mean 'regeneration'?"  
"Uh-I took genetic samples from each of you at the start of our voyage for this exact eventuality." Why did the man expect any of them take such drastic measures? Did the man's stupidity have an end? Honestly, did it?  
Also, "Why am I only hearing about this now?"  
"Because none of you had lost a limb yet."  
Fair point.  
The machine buzzes and whines as it comes to life. Something pinches harshly where Snart's stub was and he can't help the, "Ow," that comes out of his mouth.  
Sara's hand snatches Snart's and their Bond feels new and old at the same time, making for a pleasant distraction as he watches bones grow right before his eyes. They're followed by veins, tendons, and all those things they taught him in health class on the rare days he actually paid any attention.  
It's as interesting as it is disgusting to watch.

A hand materializes as if by magic and the blue lasers stop roving over Snart. He wiggles his fingers, because he can't quite feel his hand yet.  
"Fascinating." Stein breathes. Jax's mouth is wide open in shock.  
Rip laughs and Snart has the sudden urge to hit him.  
Just to make sure the hand was real, of course.  
Sara's sudden squeeze on his hand stops that train of though. He squeezes back to reassure her that he isn't about to go on a punching spree.  
Snart tilts his head, pulling the hand away from the blue light to see if his Bond-Mark was there too. 

"I'll meet you all on the bridge." Rip tells them, bouncing out of the room like a child who's been praised by their parents.  
Snart pulls his other hand out of Sara's to run one hand over the other, feeling his own touch as he moves his re-grown appendage.   
"Thanks, Gideon." He says, because he doesn't think the Time Dope deserves it.  
"You are welcome, Mr. Snart." The AI pipes up cheerfully.

"Is your Bond-Mark still there?" Stein asks worriedly. Glancing at the backs of the criminal's hands as if he could see them.  
"Gideon." Snart clenches both fists tightly for a second before asking. "Can you use that Bond Light to show the professor my Bond-Marks?"  
"Are you certain you wish to reveal them, Mr. Snart?" The program double checks. "Are you giving me your permission to use the light?"  
"You have it, but." He makes sure to add. "Only shine it on the backs of my hands. I don't want to see theirs."  
"Of course, Mr. Snart." Gideon shines the strange red-green-purple-blue color light directly onto the back of the criminal's hands. The two infinity symbols light up on his skin, clear as day.  
"Remarkable!" Stein's hand goes to his chin. "Gideon, how long has this kind of technology been around?"  
"The-"  
"Cancel that, Gideon." Snart interrupts the program. "I'm not in the mood for a history lesson. You can kill the lights too."  
The Bond Light turns off immediately.  
Snart rubs his hands together. "Let's get to the bridge and get the heck out of dodge."  
Jax and Sara go to either side of Snart to help him off the chair. He waves away their hands.  
"I'm all healed." He points out. "Got both of my hands and everything."  
"And this is the guy with the Infinite-Bond?" Jax scoffs.  
"I know." Sara rolls her eyes playfully. "Such a crab."  
"Sticks and stones, kids." Snart drawls, walking passed them all to leave. "Sticks and Stones."

 

All three of them make it through one doorway the same time Kendra and Raymond walk in the other.  
"I believe we're ready to leave 1960."  
"And go where? I mean, when." Sara sounds tired. Snart'll have to remember to ask her what happened during her two year 'vacation'.  
"2147." Rip's answer is immediate. Pre-planned, like he was holding this date back for a while. Waiting for them to fail a few times before using it. "Mere decades before Vandal Savage conquered the world."  
Yeah, "Thought you had no idea where he was."  
Not that Rip lying to them comes as a surprise.  
"You said Savage had been lost to history."  
"Not world changing history." Great. What war did he start this time? "Records of the period are scarce, but I've always known that Vandal Savage could be located in 2147."  
"So, why haven't you told us this sooner?" Good question, Jax.  
"Because that period of history is fraught with more peril than I was willing to risk." Meaning, he didn't want to risk his own hide by going there first if they could beat the monster at another time. "We have no choice. We're to stop Vandal Savage in 2147, or to die trying."  
Ha! Snart doesn't believe for a second that Captain Selfish would give his life for this mission. If he died, who would 'save the world'?   
"Well, I've died before."   
Not sure your new boyfriend is too chipper about you saying that, Birdie. Those two felt more connected than when Snart saw them last.  
"So have I."   
Sara's need for self-sacrifice was probably born out of honor or another assassin idiosyncrasy.  
But Snart's feeling just as suicidal, so he'll go along with it.  
Anything to put his mind off Mick.  
Stein and Jax don't voice their complaints either so Rip tells the Gideon to take them to their next destination.

They all get to their chairs. Sara sits next to Snart while Stein and Jax take the ones directly across from the criminal.  
"The year 2147."

 

\---


	5. Killing Kids Isn't For Heroes (Ep. 10)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note to Readers:  
> The beginning part (with Barry) is EXACTLY the same as in the "Original" Version. [Sorry!] It was too cute to change. :}

Barry laughed.  
The day Snart told the speedster about his Infinite-Bond, the hero had laughed.  
It was a full on, bend over, hit-your-knee, can barely hold anything back, laugh that had Snart's trigger finger twitching in the Cold Gun.  
He almost shot Barry. Several times.  
Maybe he should have.  
"I fail to see what's so funny, Scarlett," Snart had drawled, nearly pulling out the weapon to at least threaten the hero with it.  
"I'm sorry," Barry wheezed while he tried to force himself to stop. "I am so sorry, honest, it's just."  
The hero finally straightens, shaking his head as he went, "I knew it."  
"What?" Snart frowned, wondering if it was possible for people to tell after all.  
"I KNEW there was good in you, Snart," Barry smiled. "You are literally capable of being everyone's best friend."  
"I highly doubt that, Barry," Snart rolled his eyes. "I'm not the friendly, feel-good type."  
"Just think of all the good you could-"  
"Not interested," Snart had cut the hero off before he could even try convincing him to change. 'Be a better man' and all that drivel.  
"But-"  
"Goat's butt, you run around like a high strung teenager," Snart countered the hero again, smirking at the other's growing frustration. It was so much better than having the speedster laugh at him.  
"Why did you even bother to tell me then?" Barry had raised his hands in the air, turning slightly as if there was someone else in the abandoned alleyway who would back him up.  
"Because you saved Lisa. Because I had the annoying, nagging feeling of owing you and I hate owing anyone," Snart drawled, then his voice lowered. "Because you asked."  
Barry had asked. Had wondered what was wrong with Snart's Bond and if there was anything he could do to 'help.' Foolish, kid, always rushing around to get into other people's business.  
If he was honest with himself, Snart didn't really know why he ever told the speedster anything. Maybe he was looking for something to use against the hero, to make the other think twice about going after him, judging him, arresting him...   
Maybe he was tired of keeping the secret.   
Something changed in the way Barry was looking at him. Going from frustration and confusion to sympathy. What was he thinking now?  
"What?" Snart sighed, waiting for the pity. He hated pity. Didn't need it.  
"It really bothers you," the hero observed. "Having this legendary Bond. It really ticks you off."  
That got Snart angry.   
"Of course!" he had barked, taking a small step closer. "Can you imagine having the crap beat out of you from a man you were Bonding with?"  
When attacking, sometimes it was best to go straight for the throat.  
Barry's eyes had grown large, his imagination playing behind those saucers.  
"Yeah." Snart smiled viciously, showing teeth. "Not such a great thing after all, now is it?"  
"Still," the hero pulled himself together valiantly, eyes still soft. "Your past doesn't have to direct your future steps."  
"Get that from a cookie, did you?" Snart shook his head.  
"Your childhood sucked, so did mine," Barry continued on, determined. "but why fight it now?"  
"For the same reason you and that reporter, Iris, are desperately trying to avoid your own Bond."  
"How-?"  
"To me, all Bonds are obvious."  
"Iris and Eddy were together."  
"They weren't Bond-Mates."  
"Iris has always been a forward thinker. She didn't let the destiny of a Bond hold her back from loving someone."  
"I'm no advocate for destiny or following your Bond. I'm just saying the blonde detective is dead, so you two shouldn't be dancing around each other anymore."  
"There are other reasons."  
"There always are, Barry."

The hero sighed, defeated. Finally, they could stop talking about it and Snart could leave. Then the speedster had chuckled and Snart groaned inwardly.  
"I can't wait to tell Cisco," Barry smiled to himself.  
"Don't you dare." Snart had glared, breathing harder with the sudden flare of anger. "If you so much as think about it in another's presence, I'll ice you, put you in front of a million cameras while you're dressed as The Flash and rip off your cowl. Then, while the cameras are still rolling, I'll get you and Iris to make out."  
Barry blinked, surprised at the sudden ferocity of the other man's words.   
Also his choice of threats.  
The last, completely ridiculous, threat was just to make the speedster literally go scarlet.  
"See if you can avoid your Bond after that."

Not wanting to waste any more time with the hero, people might talk, Snart had turned to leave.  
"Can I feel it?" Barry had asked as the criminal moved.  
"No," Snart deadpanned, walking away.  
"Oh, come on!" the hero followed after him. "I'll make it fast."  
"Not even a micro-second."  
"I could do it so fast, you wouldn't even notice."  
"I'd notice."  
The speedster had prancing on his tip toes after the criminal like a toddler excited about getting a new toy. It didn't help his case.   
"Please?"  
"We're not friends, Barry."  
"But we could be?"  
"Pass."  
Snart turned an icy glare to the hero before letting himself be pulled into mid-day foot traffic, effectively escaping the other man......

 

Snart opened his eyes as the memory ends. He didn't dream anymore. He just closed his eyes and re-lived the past.  
At least it was better than his nightmares.

They had Time Jumped but Rip decided to allow everyone a few hours rest while the ship flew at a slower speed towards their next destination on the planet.  
Flexing his re-grown hand, Snart reaches for the Bonds inside him. Lisa's is still a golden strand of light that surrounds his heart. Stein's is warm, not surprising since the scientist is one half of a human flame. The one with Sara is strong, like the steel bar the woman fights with. He frowns when he senses the one with Mick. It's weak and small and only fills him with regret so he pushes it away.   
"Mr. Snart." Gideon interrupts suddenly. "We have arrived at our destination."

 

Kasnia Conglomerate. 2147.  
The future is full of greys and dark blues. Not that Snart cares. He joins the group on their merry jaunt into the new Time Line.   
Kendra decides to stay on board. Either to get away from the people who want to rescue the man who killed her 'beloved' or to stay out of the clutches of the maniac who enjoys killing her every chance he gets.  
Sara and Jax are excited to bring Stein and Raymond out like they were the new owners of a pair of puppies. The thought brings a smile to Snart's face.   
"The future it's-"  
"Astonishing!" - "Fascinating!"  
"Well, it was a fifty-fifty chance which one he'd choose."  
"Actually, I was gonna say 'remarkable'."   
"Isn't it?" Rip's walking in the front of the group like the teacher on a field trip. "2147 was considered the world's 'zenith'," the Time Man says the word like he's proud he can pronounce it. "All of these people have five good years to look forward to."  
Yeah, yeah, you know everything. Why don't you share with the class, "Before what?"  
"Before a ruthless dictator named Per Degaton comes to power, releases the Armageddon virus and most of them end up dead."  
Sara's childish glee at seeing the future turns sour at the man's words.  
"Well, that's depressing."

Three robotic versions of the ATOM suit come flying into the vicinity.   
"Woah!" The kid is surprised and impressed at the machines.  
"Is that my suit?" Raymond is a little more hesitant to get excited about seeing 'another version' of himself. He can't seem to believe his own eyes, "It's my suit."  
A woman screams. Snart's eyes dart over to where a petty thief has stolen the woman's purse and is making a run for it.   
Idiot.   
The robots shoot him with a red laser, causing shock to spread through some of the team, then they all get a front row seat of how 'the law' handles the crooks of this Time Line.  
The sudden, almost brutal, attack on a man who only stole a purse is not pleasing to the man who most likely made their predecessor.   
"Doesn't look like progress to me."

 

Time to split up.   
Martin, Jax, and Raymond are going to look into the robot police while Sara, Rip and Snart are going to look for Savage.  
Snart pulls his hands out of the deep recesses of his pockets in case he needs them to 'borrow' something in the last second.   
They're in one of the soaring skyscrapers to crash a board meeting of father Degaton.  
"And it's open to the public?"  
Snart doubts it. If the man is so extreme about his 'safety' measures to the point of using robotic policemen, then the crook highly doubts he'll let just anyone into his special meetings.  
"Of course not."  
Knew it.  
"Just Kasnia share holders."  
Just another point of fact that money can get you into places.  
"I hate to break it to you, but, we're not share holders."  
"I'm more of a hard asset man myself." Diamonds, gems, cash, paintings, stolen gear.   
Rip has special contact lenses that, once scanned, get him access to the meeting.  
But just him. "They'll have to wait outside."  
"Oh, no, this is my accountant and she is my personal asist-." Rip looks at Sara, wisely re-thinks her fake job. "bodyguard."  
"Stock holders only."  
Snart's not surprised. Some people actually know the definition of the word 'only'.   
Rip goes it alone while Sara and Snart move to find a place to wait for him.

 

Snart finds a good place to lean, somewhere out of clear camera view and still close enough to the bumbling captain in case he needs back-up or messes up the mission early. Sara takes a defensive position nearby, while still looking like a regular person waiting on someone else.  
Snart crosses his arms and closes his eyes.   
There are so many Bonds moving around that he hadn't noticed at first, but as he focuses his senses he recognizes Savage's Shattered-Bond. His insides twist when his Infinite-Bond wants to reach out to the maniac. The forced Bond from Russia pulses under his skin to be released from the walls he's surrounding it with.  
"You okay there, Leonard?" Sara is suddenly next to him and Snart's eyes slip open to see a guarded look of worry on her face.  
"Fine." He smirks. He's tempted to say 'peachy' but he doesn't want to risk giving anything away. "Just trying to calculate the worth of that painting on the far wall."  
Sara looks over her shoulder at the grey swirls on a square frame.  
"Five bucks?" 

 

When Rip comes back, he's not happy. He refuses to talk about it until they get back to the ship. 

Once in his little side room, he lets them know that the immortal psychopath is trying his hand at home education.  
"He's a teacher." Sara double checks that she heard the man right.  
"A tutor," Because that word makes so much of a difference. "It would seem, to young Per Degaton himself."  
The Time Monkey is way too worked up for that one piece of information. He's keeping something from them, so Snart's going to make sure he knows what.  
"You say that like it's supposed to mean something."  
Share, Rip.  
Begrudgingly, he does: "After the death of his father, in five years time, Per Degaton unleashes the Armageddon virus which decimates the world's population; leaving it right for conquest."  
So... The little snot gets all emotional about his daddy going away that he decides to kill off a slew of people?   
Future kids were unstable.  
"Per Degaton primes the world for dictatorship. And then when the time is right!" Rip might have been a dramatic story teller before becoming a Time Traveler. "Savage snatches that power away from him."  
"By killing Per Degaton."  
"Indeed."  
Kendra speaks up, "Okay, so we don't have what we need to take out Savage," They lost the magic dagger in 1958. "but maybe now we can figure out a way to stop his rise to power."  
"By depriving him of the springboard: Per Degaton." Rip agrees.  
Snart realizes the reason why the man held this Time Line back.   
"Okay. How do we do that?"  
Rip wasn't trying to save his hide. He was trying to save his reputation.  
His morality.  
"It's quite simple really."   
Snart smiles. He wonders if the Time Moron had any other mission tactics than 'leave behind' and 'kill'. The crook decides to be the one to tell the ladies. (Instead of waiting for the frowning idiot to explain.)  
"We kill the little monster ourselves."   
Kendra is shocked and disappointed in their 'leader'. Sara nearly rolls her eyes at the man's ridiculousness but decides on a glare. The assassin is probably just as tired to hear another kill order from a man who's trying to defeat a murderer.

"I'm getting the others." Sara announces, leaving the room. She's not about to let Rip kill the kid behind their backs.

 

"To be clear," Stein's anger is barely being kept back with his words. "We are talking about murdering," The scientist has to pause to try to calm himself. "A child!"  
"Who hasn't done anything to anyone."  
"Yet." Snart might not like Rip's plan, but it's important to keep the facts straight. "So why don't we pick him off now, while the pickin's easy?"  
"There's got to be a better way." Kendra says it like a fact, but is practically begging Snart with her eyes to think of something else.  
After all, their previous kill-that-person plans went "SO" well.  
"How do we even know that this Per Degaton kid's path to becoming a world ruling dictator is inevitable?"  
"Because," Yes, Rip, why don't you tell us about that? "In the future that I'm from, children learn about Per Degaton in the same way that children in your time learn about Adolf Hitler."  
But they were traveling through time to change the future. Making that point moot. If they're to save the world from Savage, maybe they can do it with the kid?  
"What about the larger societal problems that would allow such a desperate's rise to power?"  
Snart's not interested in fixing the world's social problems. They're not even the cause of the kid's future hierarchy.   
"We already know what pushes this punk to the dark side." Snart knows the brat wouldn't go crazy just because his old man died. All problems lead to one person: "Savage."   
"Look it's not the kid's fault he's got an immortal psychopath as a tutor."  
True. The immortal somehow crept his way into the kid's head and demented it.  
But, "If we don't kill the kid now, Savage will." So either way he turns up dead. "As soon as he's done using him to take over the world." Which is what nobody wants. At least this way he won't have to be the focal point of the world's destruction.  
"If he doesn't build up to become the greatest tyrant the world has ever know, Savage can't become the last tyrant the world has ever known."  
Bright Eyes sighs but doesn't make a comment.  
"Murdering a child," There's a tremor in Stein's voice. "in cold blood, just like Savage murdered your own son? What's the use in saving the world if we 'stoop' to his methods to do so?"   
Sorrow and Pity for the kid. A touch of anger and disappointment for the captain.   
Okay, Professor, calm down. It looks like you're getting to the Time Moron.  
Bright Eyes sighs again, "I'm with professor Stein."  
"Good!" Snart didn't really want to kill the kid. He just wanted the others to fully understand Rip's decision. "Since we aren't going to kill this kid."  
"Then removing him from the Time Line 'might'-" Rip needlessly emphasizes the word. "be the next best thing."  
"Great, we've gone from infanticide to child abduction. Progress."  
Well, we have to do SOMETHING, Raymond. Or do you prefer to let millions of people die off for the sake of one futuristically evil brat?  
"But first we need to devise how to abduct him from underneath the noses of his father's private guard."  
No problem. Even the future's security measures have flaws.  
"And don't forget the army of ATOM robots."   
Yes, Raymond. You can stop your evil minions too.  
"We're going to need an accomplished thief." Rip looks to Snart.  
Of course. That's what he's here for, after all.  
"While you're kidnapping baby Hitler, Professor Stein and I will sabotage the robot army."  
Jax jumps on that plan, "I call Team Robot Army."  
Good. If something goes awry, the kid and professor can become Firestorm.  
"Isn't that a waste of time?"  
"Not for the Kasnian citizens who are tormented by my technology." It's really the 'rule breakers' who are being tormented. Nice to know Mr. Perfect has the backs of the future criminals.  
"That technology does lead to Savage's rise to power." Rip gives him the Point of Approval. "Good back-up plan."  
Sara glares. "Fine. Team Kidnapping."  
Rip raises his fist, "Go team."  
You'd think they were about to play a game of sports instead of robot espionage and kidnapping. Never a dull moment with this crew.  
They all leave, except for Bright Eyes and Birdie.   
Must be time for couples therapy. 

As Snart suspected, there's a simple flaw to security. All they have to do is ambush the kid while he's going from one building to the next.   
Slip in. Grab. Slip out.   
Easy.

 

Snart waits in his position.  
"No litter. No street crime. No smog." Nothing remotely homey. "How soon can we leave?"  
"Keep you eyes peeled." Sara remarks from her spot on the roof. "According to Gideon, Per Degaton should be passing through any minute on his way to gymnastics class."  
"Are you telling me future Hitler is enrolled in a gymnastics class?" Flexibility must be a pre-requisite for conquering the world. Snart refuses to imagine Savage in tights.  
Snart slips on the fancy future glasses to get a look at what he's working with.  
"Ye-es," he approves. He's keeping them when this is over.  
Then Per Degaton and his goons come out.  
"I've got eyes on little Lord FolknerRoy."   
"I don't see him."   
"It's because he's surrounded by Daddy's goon squad." And because the kid's short. "Northeast corner of the plaza."  
"Got him."  
"It's too bad we can't just shoot him," Snart remarks sarcastically. It's a good thing the citizens of the future were about as unconcerned with others as those of the past. He's openly talking about killing someone and nobody's even looked his way. "It would be a whole lot easier."  
"Stick to the plan." Rip growls. Why is HE angry? "Both of you."  
No need to jump down Sara's throat too, Hunter.   
"Keep you cool, Rip," Snart smirks at the familiar pun, moving to his next position.

 

One shot. One man down. No one even notices.  
"I'm in position. It's up to you now, Mr. Snart."  
Naturally.  
Snart waits on the bench for them to get close enough. Watches them with his peripheral vision until just the right moment...  
Snart stands. One, two, then three and the guards go down. Rip handles the last one before zapping the kid with the 'make you fall asleep' gun, then carries the kid over his shoulder while Snart keeps an eye out for suspicious onlookers. Sara catches up with them a few moments later and they all make their way back to the ship.

While they're in MedBay, Gideon informs them that she can monitor their dreams.  
Snart grins at Sara as she cuts the program off before it can finish the story about the nurse. Must be that girl the assassin met back at the asylum.  
Then they find out that kidnapping the kid did nothing to improve the time line and Snart's grin turns into a grimace.

 

Rip tells the rest of the team the bad news.  
"What do you mean it did nothing?"  
Nothing mean nothing, professor. It's a simple enough word for someone so smart.  
"I mean, that kidnapping Per Degaton had a nominal affect upon the Time Line."  
The real question is: What to do with the kid now? "Maybe we just need to dump the little brat somewhere he can't get into any trouble. Like the stone age."  
"No matter where and when you sequester him in the Time Line, Savage will still rise to power." Gideon doesn't offer up an alternative; just feeds them more bad news.  
"But Rip said this kid's like a baby Hitler."  
"Yes, I also said that time wants to happen." Why does time wants the world to be decimated by a psychopath? "A-and such a world changing event like Savage's rise to power can't be stopped merely by kidnapping his young," Rip struggles a moment for the right word, "Pawn."   
"So what?" Sara scoffs. "We go back to plan A? Snuffing out the kid out in his sleep?"   
"Let us not forget that this," Rip once against struggles, "Kid." He seems to finds the word distasteful. "Will one day be responsible for 'billions'," Drive the fact in a little more, "of deaths." And the final touch, "Including those of my family."  
The true, honest, only reason Rip has brought this group together.   
In that moment Snart finally realizes how Rip Hunter can be so heartless. He can feel the emptiness in the other man. A darkness that clouds his heart when he thinks of his lost loved ones.  
Snart can't say that he wouldn't feel the same about losing Lisa.  
"Say that you do stop Savage and save the lives of your family." Stein looks to the captain. "Will you be able to look your own son in the eye, knowing what you did so he could live?"  
"When the alternative is, that I should never see him again..."  
"Maybe it's less about Per Degaton and more about the Armagedon virus." Snart offers, cutting off the man's words before he can say something they don't want to hear.   
When he only gets confused looks, he explains, "Maybe it doesn't need to be young Per Degaton who kills all those people. Maybe it can be his father, Tor Degaton, just as easily."   
"Savage has proven to invoke great loyalty from others." Stein agrees, most likely thinking of the Russian army the madman had at his beck and call.  
"Yes, but Savage has had years to corrupt Per Degaton's mind." Rip shakes his head. "I don't think he could do such an extensive job with Tor Degaton in such a short amount of time."   
"I got an idea." Jax speaks up, tone slightly derogatory. "Instead of us arguing about whether we should kill him or where and when to dump him off, why don't we just talk to him?"  
Talk to him?  
"It's not too late for Per Degaton to change."  
After all, Sara herself has changed over the course of her life and this mission.  
"Says who?"  
Honestly, Rip. Wasn't it obvious?  
"Says, someone with two tours at the League of Assassins and a case of blood lust under her belt." Sara leaves him at that. Lets him think it over.   
Good ole assassin. Breaking men even beyond their bodies.

 

Rip doesn't care what his team thinks. He shows that by escaping on the Jump Ship with the little future dictator.   
As the others scramble to try and locate the Time Moron, Snart grabs a rubber ball out of one of his crates and starts bouncing it around. 

 

Sara arrives in the cargo bay.  
"No luck finding our homicidal captain?"  
"Gideon's still searching but, I have a feeling Rip's not going to be found if he doesn't want to be."   
She's here for him then. He still asks, "So what are you doing down here?"   
Sara smiles at him. "Don't you think you at least owe him a conversation?"  
'Him' as in 'Mick'. The assassin wants the two criminals to get back together.  
How sweet.  
'People need to talk things out' must be the lesson for today's failing mission.  
"We had our conversation while he was Chronos." He tried to reach his partner, but the man wasn't interested. "And he made his feelings about me very clear."  
"And what about your feelings?"  
"About you?" Snart looks up, tosses the ball at her.  
She catches it, "About Mick."   
"I don't have any feelings about Mick." Snart looks away from her knowing eyes. Rubs the re-grown hand as he stares at the Infinity Symbol.  
Sara releases a breath, crouches down. "Look it didn't seem that way when we were dying in the engine room of hypothermia."  
What can he say? Near-death experiences made him chatty.  
"He knows about the Infinite-Bond, Sara," he tells her, eyes looking back up to hers. "He wants to kill all of you and take me back to the Time Masters."  
The assassin's jaw clenches, something protective flows over to Snart and makes him smirk. "He's not the same man he was when we left him in that forest."  
"But he could be once again," Sara counters, confident. "It's obvious that leaving Mick behind is still weighing on your conscience." She tosses the ball back to him and he catches it. "So," She gets up. "Stop being an idiot. And go deal with it."  
Sara pauses on her way out of the room to pat him gently on the shoulder.  
Once she's gone, Snart carelessly throws the ball. He doesn't even bother trying to catch it as it passes him then bounces over him and further into the area of the cargo bay.

 

Snart sighs. He betrayed his partner, let him get snatched up by the Time Manipulators and changed into a weapon.   
But Sara didn't know Mick like Snart did. There was only one way the man could 'talk things out'. And it wasn't with words.

He finds the ball and puts it back into his crate.   
He goes to the bridge.

 

Sara frowns when he arrives. She knows he didn't go to see his partner, but doesn't get a chance to comment on it because the ship is attacked. Degaton Sr. is firing on them.  
"I'm afraid our shields will not be able to sustain continued bombardment."  
"You're afraid?"  
Yeah, how about the human lives INSIDE your metal walls?  
"Here's an idea, why don't you fire back?!"  
You have GUNS, you faulty program!  
"I would except-"  
"The flying robots already targeted our weapon's systems."   
Of course they did.  
"We don't need weapons."  
Has Raymond finally lost it?  
"He's right. We have super powers."   
Actually, Kendra and the Firestorm duo have powers. The rest of them have super powered toys or amazing fighting skills.   
They all go out to fight.

 

Sara runs out of the ship and practically tears through the line of attackers, moving from one enemy to the other with hardly a break in movement. Snart shoots at a man then notices something near the body at his feet that looks a lot like a hand grenade. Even in the future, they kept their weapons recognizable. The button is easy enough to find, so he pushes it.  
"I think this is yours!"  
Snart throws it back. Good Guys are supposed to return things that don't belong to them.  
It lands in right behind the two men in front of Savage, blowing them away and giving the crook a clear view of the maniac. Savage's smile widens when he sees Snart.  
The criminal shoots another minion to distract himself from the nausea.

Snart keeps firing, focusing on the men attacking him while the others either take to the skies or Sara's leftovers.  
There are so many men, so much motion from thrown punches, fired weapons and explosions that Snart doesn't realize how close two of them have gotten until they knock away his weapon and grab his arms.  
He struggles against them, of course, but they're holding on too tight to break away. Savage steps in front of him and he feels his gut twisting in revulsion.  
"Leonard Snart, how are you?" Savage smiles wide, showing teeth. "I've missed you."  
"Can't say I feel the same." Snart growls, twisting in the guards' hold still.  
"I saw you at the asylum." The maniac pouts. "You were injured in the arm. I was so worried about you."  
"Save your worries for yourself!" Snart finally manages to get his elbow in the right position to ram it into the right goon's gut. The minion releases him and Snart pulls the left goon off balance and shoves him into his buddy.  
Savage appears like magic behind him and places a knife under his chin.  
"Sometimes when I sleep." The psycho whispers harshly in Snart's ear. "I dream of you instead of my goddess."  
The madman has the knife so close to his throat Snart can't move without risking cutting himself. Savage places his knife-less hand around the criminal's neck and practically groans with the contact.  
Snart stills, closing his eyes tightly from the chaos around him as he tries to block out the murderer's Bond that surges in him. He tries to move, tries to pull back to get away from the knife and to escape, but Savage just brings him in closer, chuckling deep in his chest.  
Savage's Shattered-Bond drags him down into the darkness with every second of contact.  
Deeper... Deeper.... Deeper.....

"LEONARD!"

Snart snaps his eyes open; feels Sara call out to him more than he heard her voice a second ago. The assassin is standing in the middle of several fallen enemies, eyes wide with worry before they change to a bone-chilling glare aimed at the man holding the crook.  
Even Stein's Bond is pulling at the back of his mind, acting like white blood cells against the virus which is Savage.  
Something, faint, familiar, burns in the back of his mind as well, but it snuffs itself out too quickly for him to realize what it was.

The robots suddenly tilt and fall from the sky and Snart realizes that Raymond and Kendra are MIA.   
"Raymond was able to sabotage his robot army." Firestorm says. Snart's not sure exactly who he's telling, but the information's good to know.  
"What do you want?" Sara shouts at Savage, hand holding onto her staff tighter than she needs to. Her Bond reaches Snart's, asking him without words if he's okay.  
Of course he's not, but he doesn't let her know that. With a forced smirk, he pushes back an 'A-OK'. Somehow, at least from the assassin's continued frown, he can tell she didn't buy it.  
"I want your captain," Savage grins, squeezing Snart's throat for a second before adding, "Rip Hunter."  
"I'm right here." Said captain announces his presence. It's not Snart's day if he can't even notice the Time Oaf's Bond arriving. "Why don't we have ourselves an exchange? That man's life in exchange for Per Degaton."

He brought the kid back. And the kid's alive, too. The grieving captain couldn't go through with his dark plan.  
Good for Rip.  
Savage isn't happy to see the kid alive. Snart's beginning to think his idea about the Armagedon virus being the true focus is right after all.  
When Savage doesn't jump at the offer, Rip turns to father Degaton. "Your son will be returned to you, as soon as you guarantee our safe passage."  
"Don't do it father." The brat protests. "You let them go now, they will only come back for us in the future."  
"It's your choice." Rip pulls back the hammer of his gun.  
"Your son is right. We should kill most of them."  
Most of them? Right. Psycho still wants to figure out how Snart ticks.   
Degaton Sr. tears the knife out of the maniac's hands, but Savage merely uses his free hand to hold Snart closer.   
"Put down your weapons!" Tor Degaton orders.  
"No, father!"   
What's with the brat's self-sacrifice?  
"Let my son go and I will let you leave in peace." Per Degaton shakes his head minutely, but Snart sees it. The kid would actually prefer to die more than be rescued. "You have my word."  
Rip pushes the brat away. Per Degaton glances back at the Time Man as he moves towards his father.   
Savage hesitates, tightens his grip on Snart's throat as he looks around for an alternative.  
"Vandal!" Tor Degaton barks at the man. "Release him! I gave them my word!"  
With a growl, Savage shoves Snart away. Sara rushes forwards to help the crook get away from the madman as fast as he can, grabbing up the Cold Gun when she passes it, while keeping her glare aimed at their main enemy.  
When Per Degaton passes them Snart decides to offer the brat some advice, "Better find yourself a new mentor, kid."  
From what he's feeling from the future tyrant, he doubts his words are even heard.

Firestorm keeps his flaming fists up in warning as they all get back to the ship and leave. Kendra and Raymond catch up to them moments later.

 

Jax, Stein and Sara crowd Snart in the cargo bay.  
"Are you all right?" Sara asks, brow furrowed as she keeps trying to search him for injuries. "Were you hit?"  
"I'm fine," he tells her, but it convinced no one.  
"You are not 'fine' Mr. Snart," Stein corrects, sounding slightly irritated. "I can tell that something is bothering you."  
"Man, Savage had his bare hands all over your neck," Jax unhelpfully reminds him. "Did you, I don't know, block him out or something?"  
"I can't 'block him out'," Snart explains through clenched teeth. His brain is on fire with the maniac's manic glee. Whatever's happening, it's going according to Savage's plan. "Every time someone touches me, we start Bonding. No matter who it is."  
"And you don't get a choice in the matter?" Stein frowns. "That's terrible."  
"Oh, really?" Snart's trying not to sound so venomous, really he is. "It's not fascinating? Or astonishing? Or even remarkable?"  
The look of hurt on the scientist's face isn't helping, so Snart closes his eyes. Searches for Lisa's Bond to ease the pain in his head.  
Someone touches his hand and he pulls away violently on instinct, eyes opening wide to find the owner of the hand.  
Sara raises her hands up in surrender, a look of almost fear on her pretty face.  
"Leonard?" she says his name softly. "Is there something I can do?"  
Snart takes a breath, stops his chest from heaving even though he didn't know it was doing that. Or why.  
Jax's eyes are enormous and scared. Stein's frown is even more pronounced and the older man's hands are tight fists at his side.  
"I'm okay," he assures them, offering a small smile to get them to stop looking at him like he's about to break. "It's not easy having an immortal psychopath playing around in your head."  
"I would imagine not," Stein agrees stiffly.  
"Would Bonding with someone else help clamp down on Savage's?" Sara asks, hand twitching at her sides where she lowered them.   
"I'm not ready to find out, Sara," Snart shakes his head. "But thanks all the same."  
"Maybe you should lie down for a while." Jax suggests, eyes finally returning to their normal size. "The mission's a bust anyway."  
"I think that's a great idea, Jax," Snart drawls. He makes a 'parting' motion with his hands. "If you'd all be so kind?"  
The trio take a few steps back and away, allowing the crook to move passed them without touching them.

 

Snart goes to his room and sits on the edge of his bed.  
He doesn't lay down.  
He has the burning desire to get back at the monster.  
Burning.  
Mick.  
Snart sighs as he rubs his hands over his face.  
It's not the greatest idea he's ever had, but maybe getting through his problem with Mick will help push Savage's Bond to the deeper recesses of his mind.  
While the others go to their own places to await their next mission, Snart goes to the brig.  
It's about time he had that 'talk'.

 

Snart walks around the clear cell where his partner is. He feels the anger and confusion pouring off the man as he crosses his arms and turns to him.  
Mick breaks the silence first, "What do you want?"  
Snart takes a breath, "I think it's about time we talk."  
"All the talk in the world's not gonna change a thing." Mick growls, getting to his feet. "You manipulated me for years. Why should I listen to anything you have to say?"  
"I've got a dozen reasons for killing you." Threatening to kill his team and hand him over for experimentation was an obvious offense. "You've got a dozen and one for killing me. So-"   
"As soon as I get out of here, I'll make sure to kill you." Mick interrupts with a predatory grin. "The Time Masters can figure out a way to bring you back to the land of the living."  
"All that anger burning inside you," Snart tilts his head with a knowing smirk. "And yet you claim to be reborn."  
"Are you done now?" Mick turns away from Snart. "I told you, it's not gonna change a thing."  
"Exactly." That startles his partner and gets him to turn back around. "Here's my proposal: I open this cell, we let our fists do the talking."  
Mick tilts his head slightly, attention fully on Snart now. He's interested.  
"When I kill you?"  
"You take the Jump Ship," Snart looks towards the exit doors closest to said ship. "Make your escape, live out the rest of of your life," Snart shrugs slightly, turning his eyes back to his partner. "Anywhere you want."  
Mick's eyes narrow on him, considering. "And the others?"  
"You're not angry at the others, Mick." Snart tells him what he already knows. "Not really."  
His partner makes a noise of agreement. He raises his chin a little, "And if you kill me?" Mick shakes his head, "Well, it's better than being locked up in this place." He grins, "Sound the bell."

Right before he opens the door, Snart gets an idea, "Gideon."  
"Yes, Mr. Snart?"  
"Under no circumstances are you to open the cell door without Mick's or my command."   
"The Captain will be able to override that order, Mr. Snart."  
Snart doubts the man would, but just in case, "Not if you don't tell him."  
He opens the door and steps inside.  
"You ready?" Mick asks, tone deep and filled with anger.  
"Take your best shot."

 

Mick hits him in the left of his face. Snart falls back then counters with a right punch of his own. Mick ducks it, then traps his arm and punches him in the left side of his face again. Snart once again falls back. Once again tries a right punch and lands it this time. His partner counters with a one-two punch to either side of his face, each blow feeling like a sledge hammer, and Snart falls back again.   
The door to the brig opens and three familiar Bonds run into the room.  
"What on earth are you doing?" Stein demands to know as Sara dashes for the control panel for the cell.  
Snart tries to for a right fake and left follow up. Mick grabs the fake and pulls on the arm to jab him in the back a few times before throwing him into the back wall of the cell. Snart barely manages to catch himself as the world hazes in his vision.   
He pushes off the wall and throws yet another punch at Mick, but the man ducks again and lands a blow right to Snart's upper chest. The severity of it knocks the crook to his back.   
'Mick might actually kill me,' Snart thinks as he rolls, getting to his hands and knees before Mick grabs him and slams his back to the ground again.   
"Snart!" Jax slams his fists against the wall.  
"Leonard!" Sara keeps pressing buttons on the control panel without any more success then before.   
Mick punches him in the face.  
"Gideon, open the door!" the professor orders.  
"I cannot do that, Dr. Stein."  
Mick punches him again.  
"Why on earth not?!"  
"I am under Mr. Snart's direct orders."  
Mick lifts Snart completely off the ground before dropping his body to the floor.  
"But he's being killed in there!"   
Snart can feel them. Feel their worry, concern, fear, desperation, anger, frustration...  
Mick kicks him in the side and something snaps as a shout falls from his lips without his permission.  
"Gideon, open this door right now!" Sara all but screams.   
Snart's flat on his back now. Mick's hovering over him, fist bloody and pulled back behind his ear.  
"But Mr. Snart-"  
"If you don't want Snart to die you will listen to me right now!"  
The door opens.   
Sara runs, foot flying out to catch Mick in the head and knocking him away from the crook on the ground. Stein and Jax pull Snart from the room while the assassin goes toe to toe with the bounty hunter in the cell.  
"I know you're angry at Leonard." Sara dodges a swipe to the face, landing two solid jabs in succession on her larger opponent. "It doesn't give you the right to beat him to death."  
Mick swipes at the blonde's feet, but Sara jumps and slams her elbow into the side of the bounty hunter's neck.   
"It was Snart's idea." Mick growls, popping back up for a swing at the woman's chin.  
Sara pulls back, 'dances' two steps before springing her right foot up and pushing the at the man's chest so he falters towards the back of the cell.  
The assassin dashes for the outside and Gideon closes the door behind her without being told.  
"You can't keep me locked up forever!" Mick growls, slamming both fists on the wall as he glares at the woman. "I'm still going to kill you all!"  
"We'll see about that." Sara scoffs, striding around the cell confidently to where Jax and Stein are holding Snart just outside the open door.  
"Let's get him to MedBay." The assassin frowns at the crook's injuries. "What idiotic stunt was that, Leonard?"  
"I had it under control." Snart tries weakly. Breathing is difficult and his eyes are too swollen to see straight as the Firestorm duo practically carry him to their destination. "Mick always thought better after blowing off some steam."  
"So you just offered yourself up as a punching bag?" Jax's voice squeaks a little at the end. The kid's got a bare hand on Snart's. On top of his various injuries, Snart's also gained another Bond as well.  
"I fail to see how violence can bring about any sort of arrangement with Mr. Rory." Stein is disappointed in an almost a fatherly way. Thinking about Lewis will only make the situation worse, so Snart pushes it out of his mind.

They arrive in MedBay.   
Jax and Stein, with the occasional hand from Sara, help Snart get onto one of the bed-chairs and put the futuristic IV on his wrist.  
Gideon's medical light hovers over him as the program spouts out the diagnosis: "Mr. Snart is suffering from a sprained wrist, three broken ribs, severe bruising to the face and chest, bleeding of the stomach, liver, and kidneys, plus a minor concussion."  
In the stunned silence the artificial voice cheerfully adds, "I will begin treatment for the injuries now."  
Snart decides it's a good time to pass out.

 

\---This next part happens outside of Snart's POV, but it's important to move the story along, so we'll have to do it without him.---

"What happened?" Rip demands, hands on his hips as he glares at the three people in front of him. Raymond and Kendra are equally confused at hearing that one of their own had been nearly beaten to death by the captured bounty hunter.  
"Leonard was trying to work things out with Rory," Sara explains defensively.   
"By nearly dying?" the Brit barks out. "Did any of you know he was planning on offering himself up to his former criminal compatriot?"  
"If we did, do you think we would have let him do it alone?" Jax frowns, offended at the thought. He keeps rubbing the hand that touched Snart's.  
"What's wrong with your hand?" Rip notices the constant action and draws everyone's attention to it. "Did you get into the brawl as well? Did you all take it upon yourselves to get into a fight with a well trained bounty hunter from the Time Masters?"  
"We only did what we had to in order to get Mr. Snart out of there," Stein steps in for his Bond-Mate. "I will remind you, captain, that it is your doing that brought Mr. Rory on the ship in the first place."  
"A fact which I have yet to cease regretting," Rip sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He shakes his head, turning his attention back to his crew, "I suppose it is obvious that you now know to keep your distance from Mr. Rory?"  
"How do you intend to reform him if you stay away from him?" Raymond frowns. "Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away."  
"Captain." Gideon interrupts before Rip can answer. "Mr. Rory is asking to speak with you."  
"This should be interesting." the Time Traveler mumbles as he goes to the brig, five sets of feet following behind.

Rip strides around the cell and stops at the door, hands pushed deep into his pockets.  
"Yes, Mr. Rory?" he asks his prisoner.  
"Snart and I had a deal." Mick growls, glaring at the three who took away the object of his frustrations. "If I killed him, I'd walk."  
"Well, Mr. Snart is in fact still alive and had no authority to make such a deal in the first place." Rip nods to the man, turning to leave.  
"It's what he wanted," Mick tells the captain before he can take two steps.  
"And what do you want, Mr. Rory?" Rip counters, tilting his head as he bounces on his heels. "Hmm? To kill us and go back to the Time Masters? That's obviously not on the table at the moment."   
"It doesn't matter what I want anymore," Mick's voice deepens slightly. "Whether I stay or leave. I'm dead." He looks at each of them in turn. "We're all dead."  
"What do you mean?" Jax asks what they're all thinking.  
"Since I failed to bring you in, the Time Masters wanna bring me in. And this time, they're not gonna take any chances," Mick grins. "They're called The Hunters. Mercenaries. And unlike me, there isn't a human part left in them."  
"So they wanna lock us all up in the Vanishing Point?" Raymond asks.  
"No, Haircut," Mick frowns. "The Hunters do one thing: kill." He looks the team over again. "Whenever. Wherever. And they'll stop at nothing till every single one of us is erased from the face of history."  
Mick walks back to his bench in the cell, his shoulders hunch as he looks at the blood covering the knuckles on the back of his hands.  
Rip clears his throat. "Do you have any suggestions as to how we might outsmart them, Mr. Rory?"  
Mick looks up from the blood and grins.  
"Run."

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> [[*I still don't own anything.*]]


End file.
